A member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission set off an uproar when he said this week that the agency would consider banning gas stoves on the grounds that they pose health risks.
The argument that gas stoves are unsafe and subject to regulation by the commission is premised on research finding a link between stoves and a range of negative health outcomes — most recently, a study published last month found that natural gas stoves are responsible for more than 12% of childhood asthma cases in the United States, a similar risk to exposure to secondhand smoke.
Here’s what to know about the study:
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The findings and methodology: The study, conducted by the environmental think tank RMI and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that many as 650,000 current cases of childhood asthma are the result of gas stove use.
The researchers used the data from past studies to estimate the rate of childhood asthma linked to exposure to gas stoves. They then matched that with the estimated number of known gas stoves in the U.S. to calculate the 12.7% figure.
The criticism: The key to the finding is the quality of the data they used — and critics say the researchers failed to factor in the findings of the most comprehensive global study on the topic conducted to date.
That would be a report published in 2013 by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, or ISAAC, which utilizes data from more than 512,000 children in 47 different countries. The ISAAC study ultimately concluded there was “no evidence of an association between the use of gas as a cooking fuel and either asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis.”
RMI told the Washington Examiner that researchers only used data based specifically in the U.S. or Europe, thus making the ISAAC study ineligible for consideration.
Brown University economist Emily Oster looked through the studies and concluded that they had some noisy and inconsistent results. For example, one study, based on Russian data, found that the risk of asthma is doubled in homes with gas cooking — but also that there is no evidence that gas stoves increase symptoms associated with asthma.
“Another way to put this is that there are clearly many, many factors other than gas stoves that explain asthma,” Oster wrote in an analysis published Wednesday. “Some of these may also be environmental. But I’m skeptical that gas stoves play a huge role.”
The industry criticism of the study: Frank Maisano, who represents energy clients at the law firm Bracewell, faulted the study for not distinguishing between gas stoves and other environmental factors that could contribute to a diagnosis.
Maisano said there are many factors that can cause asthma in one’s everyday life, including indoor and outdoor environments, mold, traffic pollution, and habits of individual families.
“There’s so many factors involved — you can’t just claim that 12% of asthma cases [are] related to a gas stove. You just can’t do that,” he said in an interview. “And maybe in some scenarios, it is [the cause]. And maybe in other scenarios, it’s not.”
Responding to a request for comment, RMI manager Brady Seals told the Washington Examiner in an email Wednesday that the think tank’s study “does not assume or estimate a causal relationship” between childhood asthma and natural gas stoves.
Rather, he said, it “only reports on a population-level reflection of the relative risk given what we know about exposure to the risk factor.”
“We appreciate that this analysis is semiquantitative,” Seals added.
Why researchers were interested in gas stoves in the first place: Gas stoves, which are used in roughly 40% of U.S. homes and are favored by many cooks, have been found to emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other particulate matter at levels deemed unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization.
Recent studies have shown the appliances can leak methane, a harmful planet-warming gas, even when turned off.
“My guiding duty is protecting consumer health and safety. Gas stoves can emit dangerous level of toxic chemicals — even when not in use — and will consider all approaches to regulation,” Richard Trumka Jr., the member of the commissioner who started the controversy, tweeted Monday.
The industry suggestion: The industry maintains that all stoves harm air quality. “Ventilation is really where this discussion should be, rather than banning one particular type of technology,” Jill Notini, a vice president with the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told Bloomberg.
Where it stands: CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric issued a statement Wednesday morning meant to tamp down the political furor set off by Trumka, saying he is “not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.”
Still, some states, including California and Washington, have already taken steps to limit the use of gas stoves or other appliances, though for now, the initiatives are primarily aimed at appliances in newly built units.
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On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) introduced a proposal that would make New York the first state to ban natural gas heaters and appliances in new buildings.
Ithaca, New York, has even moved to get gas stoves out of existing buildings to pursue the goal of decarbonizing all buildings.
