Federal Agency Mulls Ban on Gas Stoves Due to Health Concerns

TUESDAY, Jan. 10, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Gas stoves could face new emissions standards or even be banned because of their link to indoor air pollutants and childhood asthma, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The federal agency will open public comment on gas cooking stoves and their hazards sometime this winter, Bloomberg News reported.

About 12 percent of childhood asthma cases can be linked to gas stove use, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

“There is about 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,” said study coauthor Brady Seals, a manager in the carbon-free buildings program at RMI, a nonprofit clean energy group. “By having a gas connection, we are polluting the insides of our homes.”

About 40 percent of Americans have natural gas stoves in their homes. The stoves emit nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and fine particulate matter at levels deemed unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization, according to Bloomberg News. In October, Consumer Reports urged readers to buy electric after tests on gas ranges found high levels of nitrogen oxide gases.

The issue is one likely to generate back and forth as interest groups weigh in on the issue. Lawmakers have asked for requiring warning labels, range hoods, and performance standards. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, both Democrats, were among those who wrote to the CPSC last month urging action and calling the emissions a “cumulative burden” on Black, Hispanic, and low-income households, according to Bloomberg News.

Some Republicans have called the plans government overreach. “If the CPSC really wanted to do something about public health, it would ban cigarettes, or automobiles, long before it moved on to address stoves,” said Mike McKenna, a GOP energy lobbyist. “It’s transparently political.”

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents gas range manufacturers, said all cooking produces emissions, not just gas. “Ventilation is really where this discussion should be, rather than banning one particular type of technology,” said Jill Notini, a vice president with the Washington, D.C.-based trade group. “Banning one type of a cooking appliance is not going to address the concerns about overall indoor air quality. We may need some behavior change, we may need [people] to turn on their hoods when cooking.”