Photo by iStock.com/deepblue4you
I have a gas stove. When we looked at houses eight years ago, it didn’t even occur to me to avoid a gas stove, even though my day job was working to reduce climate and other air pollution from coal and gas plants! Like me, many Americans (about 38 percent of households) have been cooking their meals atop a burning blue gas flame for years, without much of a second thought. But there is a growing public awareness that the gas industry has duped consumers into a sentimental attachment to a product that harms their health and contributes to climate change – something the industry has known all along, but duplicitously hid through marketing tactics and political scheming.
Over the past couple years, I started following the science on gas appliances. I’ve got two small kids at home, and I was shocked to hear that having a gas stove in your home dramatically increases the risk of childhood asthma. I started using our fan, opening windows while cooking (except in winter– I live in Minnesota!), and using more electric appliances, like my Instant Pot or plug-in induction cooktop, to cook meals (more about induction later). But I know I want to eventually get my gas stove out of my house altogether, since it seems there is a new study every month showing that gas stoves harm our health.
What’s the concern about gas stoves?
I will be honest and acknowledge that some of these statistics can be hard to digest, especially when you have a gas stove in your home or apartment, like me. But knowledge is power– so keep reading for ways you can mitigate your risk.
Leading public health organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association, have raised the red flag as research mounts about the health impacts of gas stoves and other gas-fired appliances in our homes, with some studies showing that pollutants leak even when the stove is off.
Cooking with gas for just one hour creates unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution in 90 percent of all homes. In fact, homes with gas stoves have 50 percent to over 400 percent higher NO2 concentrations than homes with electric stoves. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has detailed abundant evidence linking NO2 to cardiovascular problems, respiratory impairment, diabetes, adverse birth outcomes, cancer, and death, with increased risks to children, people with asthma, and older adults. Kids living in homes with gas stoves are 42 percent more likely to develop asthma symptoms and exposure may also impact learning deficits and cause learning deficits.
And while the focus has been on NO2– it’s not the only harmful pollutant we need to be wary of. A Harvard study recently found twenty-one air pollutants, designated by the EPA as hazardous, leaking into homes from unburned gas. That includes benzene (a known carcinogen linked to blood disorders and leukemia), ethylbenzene (which can cause respiratory and neurological problems and may be linked to more chronic kidney and liver problems), and toluene (a chemical that impacts the central nervous system and can have developmental impacts on the babies of pregnant women).
Health has been the main source of concern in the recent wave of media coverage about the harms of gas stoves. But it’s important to remember that gas also contributes to climate change.
The so-called "natural" gas used in stoves is primarily sourced through fracking– a polluting and dangerous process. The extracted gas is then shipped through pipelines where it leaks. And as we know from the research detailed above, the gas also leaks from buildings even when the appliances it fuels are not on. Gas is composed mostly of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a twenty year period.
Why are we just hearing about this now? Short answer: the gas industry has been lying to us for decades.
The gas industry has spent decades selling us their fracked fuel, whether it’s for heating our homes, powering buses, or fueling our stoves. Part of their business model has been to portray gas as “cleaner” than other fossil fuels, like coal or oil– and for a long time they have been successful, thanks in large part to vast advertising budgets. Those funds are used in ways that come straight from the playbook of Big Tobacco, like paying an “expert” named Julie Goodman to discredit evidence of the harms of gas without revealing she was being paid by the industry.
This so-called expert, the industry, and in fact, federal agencies, have known since the mid-80’s that gas stoves are dangerous. The EPA said in 1986 that NO2 could have harmful health effects, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) should investigate the concentrations of the pollutant in America’s kitchens. But we know that never happened.
It’s not just that they knew gas was bad for our health, but recent reporting from NPR reveals that the gas industry and stove manufacturers have actually known for decades how to make a safer product that uses less gas and emits less pollution. They developed the product in anticipation of government regulation, but never brought it to market since CPSC never stepped in to protect consumers who were none the wiser.
What can the government do?
Now, CPSC is finally looking at whether gas stoves harm health and will evaluate ways to protect consumers– news that kicked off this whole firestorm in the media in the first place. Many Americans are familiar with CPSC as it is the agency that issues recalls for unsafe products and helps consumers seek refunds or replacements for those products. It may be more than 30 years too late for gas stoves, but it is the responsibility of CPSC “to save lives and keep families safe by reducing the unreasonable risk of injuries and deaths associated with consumer products.”
The CPSC can and should set safety standards for gas stoves and must communicate to the public the risks that exist when you bring a fossil-fuel burning appliance into your home. Gas appliances, like stoves, pose serious health risks to consumers. Safety standards could include a warning label on the product itself letting a prospective buyer know about the associated risks, similar to those on cigarette boxes. Another way CPSC could protect consumers is through mandatory ventilation requirements.
Should the agency conclude through a fact-finding process that there was no way gas stoves could be made safe for the public, a “ban” would essentially lead to a phase out of newly manufactured gas stoves by a certain date. In this event, consumers could choose to keep their gas stoves despite the associated risks, but no new gas stoves would be available for sale.
What can individuals do to protect themselves?
There are a range of ways that people can act to protect themselves in the face of industry deception and absence of government regulation.
If you are a renter or can’t replace your appliance right now, there are lots of steps you can take to protect yourself. As I mentioned before, you can rely more on the electric appliances you likely already have in your home: a microwave, crockpot, toaster oven, etc. If you have a hood with a vent fan, be sure to always turn it one while you are cooking, and if you don’t, try to open a nearby window, if weather allows. And if your budget allows, you could also explore purchasing a plug-in induction burner. Many are available in the $50-$100 range.
For homeowners whose stove is nearing the end of its life, or with the budget to make a swap, consider switching to electric. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides incentives for consumers to switch to electric, through rebates and tax incentives, and can help lower the cost. If you’re ready to go from gas to electric, here is a great resource on how to make the switch.
There are a wide variety of electric stove models available, including induction ranges. Induction stoves run on electricity and use magnetic fields to generate heat. This technology allows the burners to heat up very quickly (water boils in half the time), the temperature stays consistent and is easy to control, and burners stay cool to the touch (the burner itself never actually gets hot, only the residual heat from the pan remains). On top of all that, induction cooktops are easy to clean as they are a flat, smooth surface.
Finally, whether you have a gas appliance or not, we all can use collective action to get the government to act. Sierra Club is working in places across the country to protect consumers and our climate from the negative impacts of gas– whether through promoting all-electric construction, cleaning up our power sector, or pushing for emissions standards in buildings. The onus should not be on the public, but the gas industry has proven that they will not back down from their greenwashing tactics that endanger our health and wellbeing. You can join us by signing petitions or sending letters to your elected officials so we can create a safe and healthy environment for everyone, regardless of income-level or whether or not they own their own home.