In restaurant kitchens around the U.S., cooks are toiling away to create mouthwatering meals, from bibimbap to spaghetti puttanesca. 

That’s what Christopher Galarza, a longtime chef and co-founder of sustainable kitchen certification company EcoChef, experienced firsthand back when he worked in gas-fired commercial kitchens. Much of the heat goes into not the food, but the air and workers’ bodies.

“I can’t tell you how many times … we throw up and get back to work,” Galarza said. Cooking with gas creates such a combination of dry and wet heat that ​“no matter where you turn, you’re being assaulted by that.”

When he finally cooked in an all-electric kitchen, it was a revelation, Galarza said. ​“For the first time in my career I was able to do what I loved — and not feel like I’m dying.”

A new peer-reviewed study backs the experiences of Galarza and other cooks with data. Published Tuesday in Environmental Research Letters, the analysis is, the authors believe, the first in the U.S. to quantify just how different conditions are between commercial kitchens using fossil fuels — gas and propane — and those harnessing only electricity.

The top-line finding: Fossil-fueled equipment generates dangerous amounts of air pollution and heat in kitchens, despite their commercial-grade ventilation. All-electric equipment doesn’t.

For the estimated 15 . S. food service workers, the results provide much-needed insight on ​ “ what it is we’re exposing ourselves to,” said Galarza, a study co-author who recruited most of the commercial kitchens for the research.

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