There is an article by Bob Neugebauer at the Gem State Patriot News on March 5, 2023 titled Cooking with gas? Maybe not.
His first paragraph says:
“Beware the gas police will soon be coming to your house to take you into custody and disconnect your gas stove. Yes, folks here we are living in the land of the free and the home of the brave and having the government threatening to ban the gas stove you have been cooking on for the past 30 or 40 years because they believe it has caused asthma in some children. Let me tell you this has got to be the epitome of stupidity from an administration that has caused a thriving economy to crash and burn because of their claims about climate change. Think about it the very people who are telling us that climate change will cause the oceans to rise are buying multimillion-dollar homes on the beach. Who knows what they may decide to ban next in their efforts to control the citizens of this country?”
But the government isn’t threatening to do that at all. Later in the article he refers to the nonexistent U.S. Consumer Protection Agency. Presumably that’s a mistake that should instead be the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). There is an article from Alexander Hoehn-Saric at the CPSC on January 11, 2023 titled Statement of Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric Regarding Gas Stoves. He says:
“Over the past several days there has been a lot of attention paid to gas stove emissions and to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Research indicates that emissions from gas stoves can be hazardous, and the CPSC is looking for ways to reduce indoor air quality standards. But to be clear, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.
CPSC is researching gas emissions in stoves and exploring new ways to address health risks. CPSC also is actively engaged in strengthening voluntary safety standards for gas stoves. And later this spring, we will be asking the public to provide us with information about gas stove emissions and potential solutions for reducing any associated risks. This is part of our product safety mission – learning about hazards and working to make products safer.”
Mr. Neugebauer’s third paragraph says:
“So, for just about 200 years we have been using gas stoves to cook our meals and now all of a sudden, they are going to be declared dangerous. Does this even make any sense to anyone but those who believe in ‘Climate Change’? Natural gas is used by over 187 million Americans for cooking meals or heating their homes because it is cheap, efficient and safer than electric. According to a 2020 report by the NFPA, households with electric stoves reported fires at a rate 2.6 times higher than those with gas stoves. Equally staggering, the death rate of electric-run households was 3.4 times higher than those with gas appliances — and the injury rate was nearly five times greater.”
Instead of looking up that National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report on Home Cooking Fires, he could just have told us that very few people get electrocuted by their gas stoves.
Conversely very few people get asphyxiated by their electric stoves. As shown in my image, the primary combustion reaction for a gas stove has one molecule of methane plus two molecules of oxygen producing one molecule of carbon dioxide plus two molecules of water vapor. We need to vent those gases outside. Other things also go on. An article by Tanya Lewis at Scientific American on January 19, 2023 is titled The health risks of gas stoves explained. Bob should have referred us there.
About 200 years ago we were using gas lighting in our homes. But we found better ways to do that job with electricity – shifting from incandescent lamps to fluorescent lamps, to light-emitting diodes. Gas stoves are hardly the last word for cooking. There are no gas-fired microwave ovens or induction cooktops.
An image of a gas stove burner came from Wikimedia Commons.
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