Highlights: A study this summer found that using a single gas stove burner on high can raise levels of cancer-causing benzene above what’s been observed from secondhand smoke.
A new investigation by NPR and the Climate Investigations Center found that the gas industry tried to downplay the health risks of gas stoves for decades, turning to many of the same public-relations tactics the tobacco industry used to cover up the risks of smoking. Gas utilities even hired some of the same PR firms and scientists that Big Tobacco did.
Earlier this year, an investigation from DeSmog showed that the industry understood the hazards of gas appliances as far back as the 1970s and concealed what they knew from the public.
It’s a strategy that goes back as far back as 1972, according to the most recent investigation. That year, the gas industry got advice from Richard Darrow, who helped manufacture controversy around the health effects of smoking as the lead for tobacco accounts at the public relations firm Hill + Knowlton. At an American Gas Association conference, Darrow told utilities they needed to respond to claims that gas appliances were polluting homes and shape the narrative around the issue before critics got the chance. Scientists were starting to discover that exposure to nitrogen dioxide—a pollutant emitted by gas stoves—was linked to respiratory illnesses. So Darrow advised utilities to “mount the massive, consistent, long-range public relations programs necessary to cope with the problems.”
These studies didn’t just confuse the public, but also the federal government. When the Environmental Protection Agency assessed the health effects of nitrogen dioxide pollution in 1982, its review included five studies finding no evidence of problems—four of which were funded by the gas industry, the Climate Investigations Center recently uncovered.
Karen Harbert, the American Gas Association’s CEO, acknowledged that the gas industry has “collaborated” with researchers to “inform and educate regulators about the safety of gas cooking appliances.” Harbert claimed that the available science “does not provide sufficient or consistent evidence demonstrating chronic health hazards from natural gas ranges”—a line that should sound familiar by now.
Capitalism is such shit…
It’s more the sociopaths running the companies that are shit. They don’t give a damn about the people they exploit and the harm they cause. And every institution’s got their share of them, not just businesses.
And they’re in the positions they are because of capitalism. Capitalism dictates you should exploit as much as possible to increase profits.
they’re in the positions they are because of capitalism.
More specifically, they are in them because of human nature. Those who don’t care about others gravitate towards positions of power. That is not exclusive to capitalism. Any hierarchy is prone to sociopaths rising to positions of power. They seek them no matter what the economic system is.
In other words, power corrupts. People without power who get power inevitably start to act like sociopaths.
But feel free to blame capitalism if you like. It is the cause of many problems with our society. Any change that decreases its power should be welcomed at least in the context of American society.
It isn’t exclusive to capitalism or caused by it, but it is exacerbated by it. It is a system that rewards the worst parts of humanity. I never claimed it to be the cause, only part of the issue.
If it’s inherent to hierarchy, how about we work to remove as much hierarchy as possible. That’s my preference.
It really is…it’s outlived it’s usefulness and needs to go the way of the horse drawn carriage.
What is the better solution? What country has implemented something better than capitalism?
A system that fully accepts environmental realities and works against the wholesale ecocide of the planet as it’s first tenet. The rest is kinda whatever at this point. It could be a resource based economy or some sort of mixed planned/free market. Just gotta make sure that invisible hand doesn’t strangle us all in our sleep, ya know?
A climate-focused approach can be built into any economic system. This isn’t really an argument for ditching the economic system that has led to the least human suffering.
Capitalism is industrialised greed, it keeps the wheels turning, having people forever chase shit that they don’t need for the sake of feeling better than the man stood next to them. What an inspirational ladder to climb.
You’re under the misunderstanding that it works.
You’re under the misunderstanding that it works.
Again, what works better? What country has implemented a better economic system?
I don’t think it’s going away ever. We need regulations that require companies to have greater, more powerful ethics oversight. Launching fake research like this should be criminal.
So, uh, ban gas stoves now, right?
"Make no mistake, radical environmentalists want to stop Americans from using natural gas. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s proposed ban on gas stoves is the latest egregious scaremongering by the Far Left and their Biden administration allies. I am pleased to partner with Senator Manchin in this bipartisan effort to stop the federal government from issuing regulations that put the interests of the Green New Deal before the well-being of American families,” said Senator Cruz.
We tried voting him out, we really did. Coincidentally, he beat Beto by a very small margin while there was a small percentage of voting machines that reportedly flipped votes for Beto (I think they would flip them to Cruz, and if you didn’t double check all your votes before casting them, then a Beto voter could have inadvertently voted Cruz)
If you take the larger words out of this comment it really reads like Trump wrote it.Supporting article below.
didn’t realize there were so many Ted Cruz fans on lemmy
Is there such a thing?
My comment was in reference to a lack of trust in voting machines, and it reminded me of someone else who thinks they “flip votes” while not providing evidence.
Yeah there was a whole thing about it at the time, it made news and was credible. The fix for it being of course to double check your ballot before you cast, which could easily be a miss by a first time voter or maybe an elderly one.
My comment was in reference to the fact that Ted Cruz is a moron, and that we came really close to getting him out, but I do think there were some shenanigans with voting. Just the other way.
Every accusation is an admission
Here’s an article about it, a quick Google returns a ton of results
Hopefully not a stupid question: would this affect butane stoves, like the ones you use to go camping?
Found an article/study stating propane does release benzene:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09289
The isobutane/white gas stuff may too but I couldn’t find anything to support that.
If you’re ever out in your garage in winter and using those burner tops on a propane tank it’s best to have a source of fresh air and ventilation (which of course negates the ability to heat effectively).
e: no stupid questions, lots of internet “researchers” though (myself included)
I’d still rather have a gas stove. IMO the improved experience of cooking with gas justifies the small increase in exposure to air pollution.
(Resistive electric stoves are terrible. Inductive ones are much better. I can see why someone might like them more than gas, but I don’t.)
do I have to take on the climate change risks too even though I had no say?
I think you have to accept risks of that magnitude unless you’re willing to micromanage other people’s lives (and to have your own life micromanaged). If you’re not going to tolerate people who use gas stoves, will you tolerate people who take twenty minute showers? People who heat their houses to 75° in the winter? People who have big lawns?
There’s a point past which protecting the environment doesn’t justify intrusive restrictions of people’s behavior, and IMO banning gas stoves is well beyond that point.
Worse than secondhand smoke is not a small increase to air pollution
There’s nothing better about gas than inductive, anyone complaining about conductive either has the wrong cookware or a malfunctioning model
I do consider it a small increase, but I suppose that’s subjective and depends a lot on a person’s risk tolerance. Maybe mine is higher than yours.
As for induction stoves: they work quite well. If I was cooking simply because I needed cooked food and for no other reason, I would have no objection to them (and perhaps a preference for them). However, I feel that there’s something deeply satisfying about cooking over a fire and I want that satisfaction when I cook.
Did anyone expect then to be impartial or a reliable source of health information?
The interesting part in the NPR article is:
As the scientific evidence grew over time about the health effects from gas stoves, the industry used a playbook echoing the one that tobacco companies employed for decades to fend off regulation.
This is the case in each industry from tabacco to at the other end Autism for example. People should do their research and look for the quality of the papers and the COI (conflict of interest).
Most people cannot judge the quality of scientific papers, that’s what public regulators are for, but they failed the people there.
That’s what gets me about the “do your own research” parrots. Ok - let me just google it and blindly trust the top SEOd results. That’s what most people’s research is going to be
It’s good advice if the audience knew how to critically evaluate articles, but people don’t even read the articles.
…autism is an industry??
You have an entire bad industry around autism. It’s worse than people think with human rights abuses. The industry produces papers with huge methodology and data issues and COI. Autism Speak is the first relay for this missinformation.
It’s been time to switch to induction stoves for a long time now, they are basically better in every way that matters.
I am very happy with my induction range. I switched from gas just before this info about gas ranges became a thing.
Much less use of handle covers with my cast iron frying pans because it directly heats instead of throwing heat everywhere. Boils water faster than my microwave. And health bonuses too.
I never got this fervent obsession “i mUsT hAvE gAs StOvE, eLeCtRiC iS tHe SuCk wAhHhHh.” Geez you think am an electric stove killed their puppy or something. Electric is more than fine, it’s even better because it’s not putting out all that extra heat, nevermind all the pollution, and the noise because you’re supposed to run the fan at high (but people never do). Cue the gAs crying below.
Obligatory Climate Town Video: It’s Time To Break Up With Our Gas Stoves. It explains why we are, where we are today and what myth the gas industry is pushing to keep gas in our homes and the fugitive leaks in the environment. Can not recommend it enough.
Electric + cast iron is my favorite combo, because the heat capacity of the cast iron pretty much cancels out the uneven heat from an electric burner
I’m currently frying with the thinnest stainless steel pan I’ve ever seen from the 70s. Didn’t even know they could be that thin. And there is no problem with the on/off cycle. It’s a made up fake concern from who knows where.
Nah it’s not made up. It fucks with my sear. And by uneven, I mean some parts of the coil heat up at different rates than others / have better contact than others.
These studies didn’t just confuse the public, but also the federal government.
If you believe yourself to be a democracy, what is really the difference?
What is the concentration of benzene in second hand smoke, or in the kitchen of a gas range?
If you read the linked report you will find that
The document showed that the trade group was in the process of researching solutions “for the purposes of limiting the levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides in household air.
This shouldn’t be conflated with ‘they knew about potential cancer risks and tried to hide it in the 1970s’.
Gas stoves rock. Rather than banning gas stoves, just require that they be installed safely.
The answer here is simple- mandate a range hood with real outside exhaust (not the cheap ones that blow air back into the room). And require a make-up air vent with equivalent capacity.
Maybe require the stove to automatically engage the vent at low speed (near-silent) so when you start a burner the vent runs at like 10CFM or something automatically.
I just had my kitchen done and asked for better ventilation, provided options. Ended up with a microwave that blows air into the fucking room. And its connected to a vent outside, its just designed to blow air into the fucking room despite that. Contractor was so clueless and products are there to deceive us.
Yep. I’d rather not have a propane stove, but I live in an area with a lot of power outages. We have a propane generator for backup power. Makes no sense to size to generator to run and induction stove when we can just use our, properly installed, propane stove.
this argument again ?
if you make the grid more reliable or give domiciles batteries then there is no problem with electric cooking these days.
but if you live where there are lots of tall trees and people like the tall trees and the tall trees are nice and keep up the quality of life but the tall trees come done all year round in storms and you lose power for upto 24 to 48 hours at a time repeatedly over and over again year in, year out, then forget your electric stove unless I have a battery to run it.
so we can upgrade our domiciles when they upgrade the grid.
Sound fair ?
Is anyone trying to ban gas stoves in rural areas? I’ve only heard of bans in big cities.
