Federal Agency May Ban Gas Stoves Across US Over Health Hazards

Blue and red gas flames on a kitchen gas stove are pictured in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 16, 2022. Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

A federal agency may implement a nationwide ban on natural gas stoves over concerns that they cause health and respiratory problems.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will have public comment about gas stoves in the winter of 2023 and could set standards on emissions—even possibly banning them, CPSC head Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News. Natural gas stoves are estimated to be used in roughly 40 percent of all U.S. homes.

“This is a hidden hazard,” Trumka told the news service in an interview published on Jan. 9. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

The CPSC already issued a request for information seeking data on the alleged hazards associated with gas stoves and input for solutions, but the CPSC hasn’t proposed any regulatory actions yet, a spokesperson told media outlets on Jan. 9. Representatives for the agency didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Such a request for data and input, Trumka told reporters last month, “is the first step in what could be a long journey toward regulating gas stoves.” Trumka, a Biden appointee, is a former congressional Democratic staffer and the son of Richard Trumka, the late former chief of one of the most powerful unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO.

A ban on the manufacture and import of new gas stoves is a “real possibility,” he noted at the time. If there’s enough public pressure, the CPSC “could get a regulation on the books before this time next year,” he said.

The Biden administration later signaled President Joe Biden doesn’t favor a ban on gas stoves, while Trumka wrote on Twitter Monday saying that the “CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves” and that “regulations apply to new products.” Another CPSC official released a statement that walked back Trumka’s comment in a statement.

It came after bipartisan criticism from lawmakers. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wrote Thursday that he doesn’t favor such a regulation and that the “federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner.”

Industry groups say that natural gas stoves don’t necessarily emit more harmful emissions than other types of stoves. the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and the American Gas Association both argued against a possible ban.

“Ventilation is really where this discussion should be, rather than banning one particular type of technology,” Jill Notini, a vice president at the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told Bloomberg. “Banning one type of a cooking appliance is not going to address the concerns about overall indoor air quality. We may need some behavior change, we may need [people] to turn on their hoods when cooking.”

While Karen Harbert, head of the American Gas Association, argued that neither the CPSC nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “present gas ranges as a significant contributor to adverse air quality or health hazard in their technical or public information literature, guidance, or requirements.”

“The most practical, realistic way to achieve a sustainable future where energy is clean, as well as safe, reliable and affordable, is to ensure it includes natural gas and the infrastructure that transports it,” Harbert said.

Possible Reasons

However, the EPA and World Health Organization have said that natural gas stoves emit unsafe levels of air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other particles. Some studies show that natural gas appliances leak methane even when turned off, critics of the stoves have claimed.

A natural gas flare on an oil well pad burns as the sun sets outside Watford City, N.D., on Jan. 21, 2016. Andrew Cullen/Reuters

A study published in December 2022, found that gas stove pollution is linked to 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases. The study was led by an environmental group, Rocky Mountain Institute, not a health or safety organization.

Meanwhile, some doctors and researchers were skeptical of the study’s conclusions. A British Columbia, Canada, doctor told local media he has questions about how it linked stoves and childhood asthma.

“This is not a true representation of what is happening and there is a huge uncertainty around how many children with asthma are truly because of those emissions. Asthma is a multifactorial disease. It’s a disease we’re still studying because it’s so complex," Dr. Ran Goldman, a pediatrics professor at the University of British Columbia, said after the ban on gas stoves was floated.

A ban on such stoves, meanwhile, wouldn’t be unprecedented. Several months ago, the California Air Resources Board unanimously voted to ban the sale of natural gas-fired furnaces and water heaters by 2030.

A handful of California cities, including Los Angeles, have similarly moved to ban new natural gas stoves in new buildings.