Healthy lifestyles are the topic of conversation as people find new information to maximize the nutrient value of food and promote their longevity. During these discoveries, researchers have found a link tying kitchen appliances to human diseases. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering banning gas stoves.
Researchers have linked these stoves to children developing lung diseases like asthma. About one in eight cases of childhood asthma is caused by exposure to gas stove emissions, according to a recent study.
Richard Trumka, one of the agents at the commission, first introduced the idea of a ban last month.
“We need to be talking about regulating gas stoves, whether that’s drastically improving emissions or banning gas stoves entirely,” Trumka said. “And I think we ought to keep that possibility of a ban in mind because it’s a powerful tool in our tool belt and it’s a real possibility here.”
“There are 50 years of health studies showing that gas stoves are bad for our health, and the strongest evidence is on children and children’s asthma.” Brady Seals, a manager in the carbon-free building program at the nonprofit clean energy group RMI, told Bloomberg. “By having a gas connection, we are polluting the insides of our homes.”
Gas stoves in the U.S. are a climate hazard, according to Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist, who did a study to figure out the amount of emission gas stoves are releasing.
“We went into the study knowing there would be emissions when the flames were burning, but we didn’t expect to see as large a contribution from the off emissions,” Jackson said as he explained the results of his findings.
Gas stoves contribute to 2.6 million tons of methane in carbon dioxide in the United States, which is equivalent to the output of 500,000 cars greenhouse gas emissions. That methane is on top of the 6.8 million tons of carbon dioxide that gas stoves emit into the air when they are used.
While the potential ban is a positive, many Republicans are against it.
“This kind of intrusion into the homes of Americans by the federal government as a way of forcing rush-to-green, liberal policies are the ‘nanny state’ at its worst,” the Republicans who are part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce said. “Banning natural gas stoves is not about public safety — it is another example of government control; like other policies we have seen from your administration, to tell Americans what kinds of cars they can drive, how they heat their homes, and how to live their lives.”
President Joe Biden has not mentioned whether he supports a ban or not. But with his Inflation Reduction Act including an $840 rebate for electric kitchen appliances, supporters of the ban see it as a positive.
