ln a mindless, knee-jerk response to a “scientific study” claiming that cooking with gas stoves causes a 12.7% increase in asthma in children our doctrinaire, ideologue, new Governor, Hochul of NY State, quickly proposed a ban gas stoves in new home construction and added legislation to ban gas stoves in restaurants and other areas. The “ban gas stove craze” has recently cropped up everywhere.
What was the source of this nonsense? Anyone who has taken an elementary chemistry course knows that when you properly burn natural gas or propane in a Bunsen burner ( in the lab), or a cook stove in the kitchen, the results of complete oxidation of fuel is heat, light, carbon dioxide and water. The cone of unburned gas ends in a sharp blue cone where oxidation takes place to generate a bright hot flame. No smoke, no particulates, no pollutants. Improper burning by restricting oxygen, can cause a smokey flame which may generate small amounts of particulates, unburned fuel, and various aerosols, but such effects would be transitory and vey limited and extremely unlikely to cause disease or asthma.
How did such disinformation or pseudo science get so much play in the media?
Some of it my have come from a 2018 Australian study: (Damp housing, gas stoves and the burden of childhood asthma in children, by L.D. Knibbs, et al. In: Med J Australia, 2018.) The authors report that 26 % of Australian homes have dampness problems and 38% have natural gas as their main energy source for cooktop stoves.
They conclude that exposure to “damp housing, and gas stoves is associated with a considerable proportion of the childhood burden of asthma”. Let us ignore the warning to all novice scientists that “association or correlation is not causation”.
But using their own figures and contorted logic it is also true that more of the 26% of Australian homes which have dampness problems, (100-38= 62) or 62% do not use gas, and many may use electric cook stoves, or some other means of cooking. They too are associated with increased asthma. It seems from these data that it is the dampness factor rather than the cook stove fuel which may be the source of increased asthma. So using their figures and logic one can also conclude that electric cook stoves are an even greater source of correlation or association with the rate of asthma than gas stoves.
It is well established that dampness in homes create an environment which may encourage growth of molds yeasts and fungi, and the spores of these plants can cause irritation and asthmatic effects. Dampness is likely the cause of observed increases in asthma. So why did the “scientists” erroneously single out gas stoves? I can not claim knowledge of the motives of the group cited above, their motives may be pure science…but some others have obvious ulterior motives to deceive.
Deprecating the use of fossil fuels, such as gas or petroleum is a recent “cause celebre” of the progressive, ideological agitator, propagandist, zealot crowd of climate partisans.
The progressive agenda is to reduce use of fossil fuels. That goal is paramount. Even the prostitution of “science” in pursuit of a desired end… even by illegitimate means… is sanctioned by the climate obsessed crowd. The ends justify the means for this subversive group.
This is a very dangerous trend. Science seeks truth, and does not contort itself to support some pre-established conclusion.
Are we returning to the days of the “Roman Inquisition” when all scientific inquires could only conclude that the Earth was at the center of the solar system…not the sun? Galileo was sanctioned, imprisoned and silenced for claiming otherwise. That was in 1633! Some, like Gov Hochul are attempting to return us to those dark days..as they claim they are “following the science”.
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