Gas stoves emit potentially harmful pollutants, but utilities and their trade group avoided regulation with tactics perfected by the tobacco industry to cast doubt on science showing health problems.
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland EmpireLAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. For the latest national news from NPR and our live radio broadcast, visitDr. Carl Shy, a public health researcher, cooks on his electric stove at his home.
Along with material collected through its own reporting, NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of publicly available documents gathered by CIC that include scientific studies, trade journal articles and papers from the University of California, San Francisco'sBuh-Bye, Gas! Come January, New Buildings In LA Will Have To Be Fully ElectricThe documents show that natural gas utilities and their powerful trade group, the American Gas Association , focused on convincing consumers and regulators that...
The gas stove plays an outsized role in the gas utility business. It doesn't use much natural gas, but house builders and real estate agents say many buyers demand a gas stove. That requires gas utility service to a home, which makes it more likely customers will also use appliances that consume more gas, such as a furnace, water heater and clothes dryer. That's why some in the industry consider the stove a"gateway appliance."toward electric ranges.
Darrow was speaking to an industry that was already adopting tobacco industry tactics. Documents show the AGA was hiring researchers who previously accepted research funding from tobacco companies., analysis technique, Mitchell's team found"no significant difference in reported respiratory illness between the members of households cooking with gas and those cooking with electricity.
The industry also favored reputable scientists who were considered scientifically conservative, for generally wanting to see a larger body of evidence than their peers before reaching conclusions. When it comes to assessing science that will inform new policies, Samet says it's rare that one study is enough to reach a conclusion."I've been involved in enough of the development of authoritative reports in different contexts to take the view that the right way to understand what the science shows is to put it all together," Samet says."And sometimes, unfortunately, the answer is that we don't have enough. So if that's conservative, that's fine.
While industry-funded research was typical for such reviews, Lippman tells NPR that not disclosing that funding should raise questions about the research."It would suggest that they were hiding something," Lippmann told NPR in an interview.Since the early 1980s, the gas industry has been more vocal in arguing against a connection between gas stoves and health problems.
A 1992 analysis by Duke University and EPA researchers found that children in a home with a gas stove have about a 20% increased risk of developing respiratory illness. A 2022 analysis showed 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. can be attributed to gas stove use in homes.against using gas stoves. County commissioners held a public comment hearing, and toxicologist Julie Goodman from the firm Gradient was the first to speak.
The gas utility industry is ramping up rhetoric and openly talks about fighting to save its business. In 2021, Harberton the issue."If the goal is to reduce emissions, we're all in," she told NPR."If the goal is to put us out of business, not so much."Gas utilities face another kind of pressure beyond health concerns, and it raises questions about the future viability of their business: the significant contributions natural gas makes to climate change.
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