Federal Agency Entertaining Possible Gas Stove Ban

Are Americans soon going to face the prospect of being federally prosecuted should they continue cooking on a gasoline stove? A U.S. federal agency is now considering implementing strong regulations and even outright banning gas stoves, justifying the strong actions over the allegedly harmful emissions they put out.

“This is a hidden hazard,” U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in an interview on Monday. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

According to a report by Time, studies have said that gasoline stoves put out dangerous pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, and “fine particulate matter” at levels the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization consider to be dangerous. This could potentially bring respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, and cancer, the report claims.

One study featured in the report by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that over 12% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. can be linked to emissions that occur when cooking on a gas stove.

“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 Brady Seals, who is a manager in the carbon-free buildings program at a nonprofit clean energy group RMI as well as a co-author of the study. “By having a gas connection, we are polluting the insides of our homes.”

Other studies include a September 2022 Harvard report which claimed children living in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to be afflicted with asthma.

West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin lamented the proposal, calling it a “recipe for disaster.”

“The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner,” he posted online. “I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”

Manchin additionally attacked the credibility of the agency, saying, “If this is the greatest concern that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has for American consumers, I think we need to reevaluate the commission.”

Previous articleMerit Awards Saga Deepens As Two More Schools Admit Role
Next articleFederal Judge Blocks Part Of New Jersey Gun Law