 | | Illustration by The New York Times; photographs by Juan Algar, Geber86, and Michael Prince/Getty Images |
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Earlier this month, a commissioner of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, the nation's top consumer watchdog, said that the agency was considering new regulations on gas stoves, including a ban, because of a growing body of research linking them to hazardous levels of indoor air pollution. |
The suggestion ignited a furor, particularly on the right. "If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove," Ronny Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas, tweeted, "they can pry it from my cold dead hands." |
Why have gas stoves become such a cultural flash point, and what are the debate's health, climate and culinary stakes? Here's an overview. |
The case against gas stoves |
The main component of natural gas is methane, which many readers may know primarily as a potent greenhouse gas, responsible for about 30 percent of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. Methane leakage from gas stoves in American homes — more than 75 percent of which occurs when the stoves are off — has the same warming effect as the annual carbon dioxide emissions from 500,000 cars, a Stanford study found last year. |
The combustion of methane also produces toxic nitrogen oxides, including nitrogen dioxide, a respiratory irritant that can cause breathing problems and that is subject to stringent outdoor air pollution controls under the Clean Air Act. |
The validity of that particular finding has been questioned by the economist Emily Oster, among others, who believes the health risks of gas stoves are being overstated. Oster pointed out in her newsletter that some U.S. states with low gas stove ownership have higher childhood asthma rates than those with high gas stove ownership. |
But what's clear from multiple tests and studies is that gas stoves can easily raise the amount of nitrogen dioxide inside the home to levels that would be illegal outdoors. They can also release other air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer, even when turned off. |
If you have a large, well-ventilated kitchen and are in good health, "this may not be your biggest concern or the biggest risk to your health," Josiah Kephart, an environmental epidemiologist at Drexel University, told NPR in 2021. But when it came to his two young children, he said, "it doesn't make any sense to me to add to the risk of them developing asthma or other respiratory diseases by having this source of pollution right inside our house." |
The double bind prompted Clark to test out induction cooktops, which use magnetic fields to heat cookware directly, and so are both more efficient and more responsive than conventional electric stoves. She found that she preferred the technology to gas — as did Eric Ripert, the chef of Le Bernardin, one of the most lauded restaurants in the world, after he replaced the gas stoves in his homes with induction. |
"After two days, I was in love," Ripert said. "It's so much more precise than watching a flame." |
The case for simmering down |
Induction technology has been around for decades, but only 3 percent of American homes have it, according to a 2022 Consumer Reports survey. |
Ignorance of its advantages could be one reason for the low uptake, but so could knowledge of its drawbacks. Induction technology works only with cookware whose exterior is made of magnetic metal, excluding bare or anodized aluminum, copper and some stainless steels. While their prices continue to drop, induction ranges also cost more on average than gas ones, and that's without accounting for any electrical work that might be needed for a conversion. |
The expense can pose a problem for home cooks and restaurants alike. The stoves at Le Bernardin, for example, are still running on gas. "It would be a big expense to replace stoves that still work well, but, if the gas stove broke, I'd consider it," Ripert said, adding that he thought his cooks would adapt quickly. "After a few days, they'd all love it." |
Many chefs disagree. In 2019, the California Restaurant Association sued Berkeley after it became the first U.S. city to ban gas hookups in new buildings, arguing that it would increase costs and prevent restaurants from preparing many Asian cuisines. |
"Many of these restaurants rely on gas for cooking particular types of food, whether it be flame-seared meats, charred vegetables or the use of intense heat from a flame under a wok," the trade group said in court filings. Commercial (and noncommercial) induction stoves compatible with woks have been developed, but they are still more expensive than gas rigs. |
There are much cheaper ways to reduce both your health risks and your carbon footprint than electrifying your stove. Dani Blum, a reporter for Well at The Times, suggested trying to use the stove less often and instead opting for a toaster oven, microwave, electric kettle or portable induction burner when possible. She also suggested installing an air purifier in the kitchen, which one 2014 study found lowered nitrogen dioxide levels by about half as much as replacing the stove. |
"Instead of getting an induction stove, then, it might make a lot more sense for you to spend your money on a heat pump, an underappreciated and kind of magical electric device that can replace both a gas-powered furnace and an air-conditioner," Manjoo argued. "But there may be an even simpler and cheaper thing to do first: Weather seal your house." |
What's next for America's stoves? |
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission quickly backpedaled, saying that it does not support a ban — and neither does President Biden, a White House spokesman said. |
Whatever the federal government does, many cities, including Los Angeles and New York, have followed Berkeley in requiring new buildings to go gas free. Conversions may also pick up because of the Inflation Reduction Act, which created rebates and tax credits to defray the cost of going electric. (Those eligible can receive up to $840 for a new stove and up to $500 for the switch.) "In the end, culture-war considerations will lose out to questions of cost and quality," Jacob Stern writes in The Atlantic. "The better product will win the day, plain and simple." |
But the mass electrification of stoves and other household appliances may take a while, not least because the nation's power grid is not yet ready for it. "Eventually, the gas stove, like the gas lamp or a pack of Virginia Slims, will exist as a relic of another era," Ginia Bellafante of The Times writes. "But we are a long way from a time in which our relationship to gas cooking will be merely nostalgic." |
Do you have a point of view we missed? Email us at debatable@nytimes.com. Please note your name, age and location in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter. |
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