The warning about the likely smell from burning glues and other plastics did come to fruition in my case... And got picked up by my sensors...
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Any cooking you do is likely to affect air quality in the immediate vicinity, so matter what type of appliance you are using.
Many times new cookware will emit gases as materials used in manufacture are released during the initial use. These gases can come from lubricants used in processing, plasticizers in various plastics, and solvents in adhesives. If you are concerned, you might want to place your rice cooker outdoors for the first few cooks to allow these gases to escape.
Today, I cooked teriyaki chicken, fried rice and vegetables for lunch in a wok on my gas stove. The wok was smoking slightly as the temperature reached the smoke point of the peanut oil I used (around 450F). If I had an air quality monitor in my kitchen, I am certain I would have gotten an alert.
If you or a member of your family has asthma, COPD or other respiratory issue, then any air quality alert might be concerning. For most individuals, such alerts are only problematic if they persist for long periods.
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Yeah, the "dangerous" part of the title was probably more tongue-in-cheek, at least when thinking about my own situation. The first use of the cooker didn't affect me in any real way. I was just surprised by the scale of the smell and the reading from my sensors. But you are right, for others this can be a problem, either in individual incidents or long-term exposure.
When I first cooked the rice I had made an Indian dish for dinner... well I say cooked, it was a packet sauce from the supermarket :-). When I cooked some more rice the next day to have with some left-overs there was almost no smell and the air quality was fine according to my sensors.
I have a similar experience to your cooking in the wok. I typically grill meat in a pan on the cooktop with some olive oil. My Philips Purifier / Dehumidifier, which sits alongside my EcoWitt Air Quality Sensor, also has an air quality indicator on it, in the form of a light that changes from blue to red. It will commonly turn red towards the end of cooking the meat, then slowly go back to normal.
We don’t have a rice cooker but have a similar experience with indoor air quality sensor measurements while cooking, so I wouldn’t worry too much unless you have other reasons to suspect something’s wrong with yours.
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Yep. I had a large parrot and little kids so everything I purchased had to pass the test as far as emissions and safety. A good rice cooker is so hard to find that I just ended up using the old pan and stove method. Too many sketchy chinese elements and teflon coatings used in production to allow them in my home. For the US, items are generally safe is UL listed and from a reputable company, that does not mean they wont be off gassing you. If you find a safe and healthy one, let me know!
Mine probably falls into the sketchy category... including the poorly translated instructions 
. After the first use when it sent the air quality sensor off the charts it has been fine, and the rice is nice and fluffy each time. The 2-3 times I have used it since haven't produced the same smell or elevated particle readings. I suspect the tip @rwclements228 had for using it outdoors the first few times is probably a good way to mitigate the effects.
Mine also doesn't use any teflon coated cooking surfaces, it is a stainless steel basket and pan. I am guessing it is the plastic housing that was the problem.
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Wheww! You're good then! The mold release agents used to form the plastics will gas off on the first few operations of a new appliance. It's totally normal these days. If it still smells like a chemical nightmare after a few uses, it's the plastics and not the release agent. Good call on initial operations conducted outside. I should have done that with the waffle iron. That thing was drenched in petrol release agent! Now, do you have a controller to make rice when it senses your entering the building after work?
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Ventilation is key for maintaining air quality during cooking. Many ding-dong legislators in the USA want to ban gas stoves under the pretense of air quality. Cooking in olive oil creates 17x more emissions than gas stoves alone. AQ issues are solved via ventilation.
As far as rice cookers go you can't go wrong with one from Zojirushi.
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That's a shocking bit of data! I'm going to conform and use that often! Thanks!!!
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