Ever since cooking stoves replaced bare fire in helping man prepare food, technology has consistently helped these evolve into the cookers that we know today. We are now able to cook with electricity, gas and even coal. In some instances there are stoves that actually do all three. Today almost every home has a cooking stove of some sort. In the much more industrialized world, apartment homes come with pre-installed electric or gas cookers making them a standard. Between coal, electric cookers and gas cookers, the latter two have become the prevalent except in the remotest parts of the world where coal and firewood is still used. In the US, Europe, Russia, China, India and South America and also in large swaths of Africa, electric cookers and gas cookers are widely used. But there has been debate as to which of the two, electric cookers and gas cookers, is safer.
Gas cookers work by pumping natural gas through a network of gas pipes usually located underground, to the cooking stove in the house. The gas is provided and regulated by the gas utility company much in the same way that way electric companies and water companies provide and regulate their services. The gas company can disconnect or interrupt the gas supply to your home if their bill is not paid in a timely fashion.
Gas cookers look more or less like their counterpart the electic cooker. They are freestanding with four surfaces where the cooking pot will stand. Gas cookers also come in-built with an oven. Gas cookers are the professional cook's choice when it comes to cooking because they can better regulate the flame via a series of easy-to-use knobs.
There have been safety issues raised regarding gas cookers ever since they appeared on the scene. The danger of fires is real especially where there is an unknown gas leak or if someone in the house forgets to properly turn off the gas. In the past, the actually gas that emanates from the gas burner was odorless which rendered it extremely dangerous because there was no way to detect a leakage until it was too late. Nowadaysa chemical compound has been added to the gas to give it its distinct smell which alerts anyone as to whether there is a gas leak.
Electric cookers are relatively safe. There is flame to contend with and no danger of leaks. If you forget to turn off the cooker, the coil simply remains hot. Newer electric gas cookers have fail-safe mechanisms designed to cut off power when it detects that the cooker is on and there is no usage. One danger with electrical cookers is that the exposed coil on the surface of the cooker can be extremely hot without appearing so. This can cause someone to touch without realizing the danger and there have been serious burns that have been caused by this. To counter this, newer cookers come with covered surfaces and there are even magnetic induction cookers which only get hot when they detect a metallic object, in this case the cooking pot, on their surface.