Kitchen Hazards

Our ancestors’ kitchens were health hazards, but our own kitchens present hazards, too. In the 18th and 19th centuries, inhaled smoke from an open fireplace or cook stove could cause smoke inhalation or lung cancer, sparks could start a fire and a stove could explode. That’s why kitchens were often constructed in a separate building or at least away from the main rooms of the house. Today’s kitchen is safer, but experts think the new “open concept” design is a hazard. The kitchen opens to the family room with a TV set. Now food is in sight all day long and TV ads promote eating snacks and drinking soft drinks and beer. So the open concept might be adding to our obesity problem.