What more is needed to convince that natural gas stoves are unhealthy, dangerous, and containment, protection, and planning measures are necessary to prevent further damage?
The victims in this case are all people exposed to natural gas contaminants in their kitchens. But most of all, “children, low-income people, people of color, and people with pre-existing health conditions, who are at especially high risk of adverse health effects from gas stoves.” So says the New York University Institute for Policy Integrity in a recent paper.
40% of American homes cook with natural gas burners. And in 60% of them the gas stove produces contaminants that would be illegal if found outside the house. It’s absurd, because if those contaminants were outside, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have screamed loudly.
But since they are in the houses, there is no regulation that protects them.
The result is that millions of users are exposed to levels of pollutants that exceed federal limits: nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and other toxins, which are especially concentrated in environments during winter.
These contaminants float on particles with a diameter of between 1 and 2.5 microns. They can enter directly into the lungs and from there into the bloodstream.
In recent years, the evidence of health damage caused by gas stoves is already indisputable. But little or nothing is done at the legislative or executive level.
Research history
As early as 2013, indoor air researchers at Berkeley Lab had found dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide in a surprisingly large proportion of California home kitchens.
In 2018, the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health stated that “under a kitchen scenario in which the stove and oven are used simultaneously for one hour, acute exposures to NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) from cooking with gas exceed California-based or national air quality threshold levels in more than 90% of modeled emissions scenarios.”
Last June, a study from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health revealed that 21 pollutants that the Environmental Protection Agency had designated as hazardous, including benzene, ethyl benzene and toluene, seep into homes from gas not burned. And in January, a study initially published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and featured in the Washington Post reported that gas stoves are responsible for one in eight childhood asthma attacks.
The document states the obvious: “The population-level implications of the gas stove are largely unknown.”
The same month, the University of Michigan School of Medicine also stated that “cooking with gas has also previously been associated with an increased risk of developing asthma, especially in children living in multi-family housing.”
The pace of studies has multiplied in the last year and a half.
In October 2022, the popular Consumer Reports (CR) magazine reported the results of an examination by its experts.
“To test the kitchens, CR built an insulated chamber with an extractor hood and ventilation fan, just like you might have in your kitchen at home,” he explains.
The tests not only corroborated the already known findings, but showed that this happens in practically all gas stoves and that even when they are turned off, contaminant particles are released from the burners.
And the sellers too
Also sellers can be part of the problem. A joint survey by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and the Sierra Club last December found that many retailers fail to warn customers that gas stoves are dangerous, or inform them of safety measures they can take to take care of your health. In more than half of the cases, and if customers ask, they are told that there is no reason for concern or danger to health.
While in the past there has been limited will at the federal level to address the problem, the deluge of evidence in the last year has led to inaction beginning to crack. This, however, has yet to reach the levels of Congress and the White House.
The public is unaware
But beyond the studies and the media that publish and comment on them, the awareness of the public and authorities about the risks inherent to gas stoves is limited.
This situation recalls the campaign of lies and smear against the COVID vaccine and the measures to mitigate its spread, just two years ago. And also how, for decades, the studies that demonstrated that the consumption of tobacco causes cancer were despised and contradicted by campaigns that were often millionaires from tobacco companies. Thanks to the struggle of environmentalists, scientists and activists, serious progress has been made in limiting the damage caused by cigarettes. at what price? Millions of lives lost.
Also remember the unrelenting fight of firearms manufacturers to prevent laws that limit anyone’s access to lethal weapons, even if they are common sense. at what price? Every month we have to mourn the loss of school children or families or the elderly to the madness of heavily armed attackers.
Just as vaccination, smoking and gun rights became major political issues, dividing us, opposition to protecting people from gas stoves could go the same way.
And although no one is seriously talking about removing these millions of stoves from the market, there are politicians who take advantage and react as if expropriation were just around the corner.
The risk of this attitude is that science is once again disregarded and the health of millions of people is endangered.
In January, Richard Trumka of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in an interview that the agency might consider restrictions on the sale of gas stoves. On social media the posts that the government wants to confiscate them went viral.
Trumpka’s statement was individual, in opposition to the position of all the other members of the commission. But the political and partisan frenzy was such that the agency’s director general, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, had to appear in public and deny the idea.
It didn’t help him much. Three weeks later, Ron De Santis, the governor of Florida and potential 2024 presidential candidate, proposed tax-exempting these stoves, saying, “They want to control every single aspect of your life…, …this is all part of a bigger plan… …They want your gas stove, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
The reluctance to change and the appeal to confrontation is such that we can assume that if it were not for the opposition, a project would already be underway to limit the use of gas stoves or limit their damage.
possible solutions
The health threat posed by gas stoves has been demonstrated by multiple studies. The proposed solutions range from the dissemination of information to the cessation of your future sales.
But among other measures, some are:
- CPSC may issue a warning label for gas stoves.
- The CPSC would create performance standards for gas stoves and range hoods, where they must measure their ability to capture pollutants.
- Establish a rating system for the best products to remove contaminants.
- Facilitate the transition to electric stoves, with direct incentives, taxes and various awareness campaigns.
Request for information
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is currently conducting a formal Request for Information on this issue. They are asking for public comment about the health hazards of gas stoves, and will also request input from experts.
To register your comment, access this link: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/03/07/2023-04554/request-for-information-on-chronic-hazards-associated-with-gas- ranges-and-proposed-solutions
In short, there is a mountain of evidence about the danger of natural gas stoves. There are measures to reduce the risk or avoid it altogether. The most important thing is that we stay informed, in order to protect our families and our community and that we do not turn a basic health issue into another scenario of political hostility.