Question from HEG
I just moved into a new apartment and I don’t know if the previous tennant used toxic oven cleaner or not. I have no reason to believe he did (there is a self-cleaning feature), but in case I would like to clean the oven in a nontoxic manner that would remove any toxic residue that could exist. My thought was just to scrub the oven with water, but I didn’t know if there was a better method. I could run the self-clean oven but I am hesitant to do this if it is unnecessary since I understand that this can also release toxins (I know you are supposed to remove birds when you run the self-clean cycle). Could you tell me how best to do this so that I can have more confidence that dishes that I cook in this oven won’t have any toxins in it?
Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
I’m not concerned that you would have toxic exposure from a previous tenant’s use of toxic oven cleaner. The active ingredients in oven cleaner are ammonia (which is very volatile and would bake off) and lye (which does not outgas).
When we moved into the house we live in now, we used the existing stove and oven and never had any odors come from it.
So I think, just do nothing. I don’t see a danger here.
