Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, June 22.
I’ve been eyeing my kitchen with a lot more suspicion lately. It’s harder to gloss over the growing body of evidence that suggests gas stoves threaten our health with every fried egg breakfast or pizza dinner.
The common household appliance seems like it’s headed toward the what-the-hell-were-we-thinking section of U.S. public health history, joining tobacco, lead paint and cars without seatbelts or airbags.
The latest indicator? New research suggests cooking with gas stoves may be as harmful as breathing in secondhand cigarette smoke.
A study from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy analyzed gas and propane stove use in 87 homes in California and Colorado. In every test, the stoves emitted detectable levels of cancer-causing benzene — in some cases exceeding concentrations found in secondhand tobacco smoke.
“Benzene produced by gas and propane stoves also migrated throughout homes, in some cases elevating bedroom benzene concentrations above chronic health benchmarks for hours after the stove was turned off,” the study’s authors wrote, noting that indoor pollution levels vary depending on a home’s size and how well-ventilated it is.
The study, published last week in Environmental Science & Technology, marks the first such analysis of benzene produced by cooking.
“The toxic conditions, researchers found, were even worse in smaller homes, suggesting health risks may be worse for lower-income families with less square footage,” Times reporter Tony Briscoe wrote this week. “The research ... comes as politicians across the nation are sparring over the future of gas appliances in residential and commercial buildings.”
Karen Harbert, president and chief executive of American Gas Assn., told Tony the trade organization is evaluating the study “to understand its methodology and the merits of its findings.”
In recent years, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other U.S. cities have passed new rules to phase out gas appliances in new homes.
Of course, the companies that profit from the use of gas stoves and other appliances aren’t too keen on that.
In April, a federal appeals court struck down a 2019 ordinance passed by the city of Berkeley — the first in the U.S. — that banned gas lines in new construction. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the California Restaurant Assn. and puts other similar efforts across California in limbo. The city has since challenged the court’s decision.
The gas battle is simmering at the national level too. Just last week, House Republicans passed a bill that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Energy from developing new efficiency standards for gas stoves. Their rationale: It’s government overreach, too costly and an assault on Americans’ freedom.
If that sounds familiar, you might recognize similar lines trotted out when it came to the health risks of smoking tobacco and the safety benefits of wearing seatbelts.
And if those regulatory and cultural clashes are any indication, the battle over gas stoves may still be pre-heating.
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