Opinion by Kip Hansen — 19 January 2023
No, they do not. As true as that it, it does not make for a very informative OpEd.
I know, I know…. ”There’s a Study!” There is always a study when the press and government power-seekers propose doing something as nutty as banning natural gas cooking stoves and home heating equipment. There have been other pieces here (and all over the press) as to whether or not “The Government is coming for your gas stoves!”. They are, but that is not what I’m writing about today.
What kicked off the press frenzy, besides the faux pas by Richard Trumka Jr., a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner, was a study that was interpreted in a New York Times OpEd by Farhad Manjoo as this:
“About 13 percent of cases of childhood asthma in the United States may be attributable to gas cooktops, a recent study found — a population-level effect similar to that of exposure to secondhand smoke.”
The recent study is: “Population Attributable Fraction of Gas Stoves and Childhood Asthma in the United States” by Talor Gruenwald, Brady A. Seals, Luke D. Knibbs and H. Dean Hosgood III, which was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health which is an ”open access journal published semimonthly online with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.” Some would interpret this to mean a “pay-to-play online journal”.
And who are the authors? The lead author is Talor Gruenwald – who’s listed institution is “RMI, Carbon-Free Buildings” – and who is RMI? The Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory Lovins’ was the founder. Talor Gruenwald is touted at Energy Central as providing “quantitative analysis and policy research in support of eliminating fossil fuel use in buildings at the Rocky Mountain Institute.” Co-author Brady A. Seals is also at RMI. The other two co-authors are real epidemiological researchers: Luke D. Knibbs and H. Dean Hosgood III, both studying air pollution and other issues.
So, this is an activist-driven study.
Did this study actually measure children’s exposure to gas stoves, water heaters and furnaces (or any pollution that they might have caused) in the homes in which children suffered from asthma? No, of course not. Did this study actually measure any homes for NO2 levels and connect this to children’s asthma? No, of course not.
This was a “meta-analysis” study. This means that this study tried to combine the findings of previous studies, some dating back many years, that seemed to study the issue at hand.
Did those studies actually measure the real-world exposure of any children to pollution caused by the us of gas appliances in homes of children who suffered from asthma? Not that I can find. In fact, there is no Supplemental Information available for this study and thus no list of the “The title review identified 27 manuscripts as potentially pertinent. Full manuscripts (n = 27) were independently reviewed by co-authors; none reported new associations between gas stove use and childhood asthma specifically in North America or Europe.”
Say what? None of the studies covered specifically North America or Europe?
Here’s the thing:
“As a result, effect sizes previously reported for current asthma in North America and Europe combined (weighted by inverse variance; Nstudies = 10; Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.34, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.12–1.57) were utilized in the PAF estimations.”
They don’t actually seem to have done a new study on effects of gas stove use and asthma at all – they used “effect sizes” from a 2013 study which itself was a meta-analysis, in which the 2013 authors re-analyzed (tortured) each of the original studies’ data until it admitted that gas stoves were bad.
The 2013 study uses data from a number of even earlier studies, such as a 1978 study that did actually measured NO2 levels and found that NO2 levels in homes that had gas cooking or heating in children’s bedroom to average 0.03 ppm while ambient outdoor air in the neighborhood had NO2 levels of 0.02 ppm. We have to wonder at the tremendous power of that extra 1/100th of a part per million to damage children’s health.
In another examined study, the finding was: “In the 1977 cross-sectional study, only the prevalence of day or night cough in boys (p « 0.02) and colds going to chest in girls (p < 0.05) were found to be significantly higher in children from homes where gas was used for cooking compared with children from homes where electricity was used.” (NB: Not asthma.] Yes, gas cooking causes boys to cough and girls to get colds in their chests.
Many of the studies found no effect from gas cooking stoves on children’s respiratory health, with findings such as this: “No relation was found between the type of fuel used for cooking in the home and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and diseases recalled by the mother after allowing for the effects of gender, social class, and parental smoking.”
Almost every contemporary study on gas appliances and asthma in children start with some version of: ”Gas stoves emit pollutants that are respiratory irritants. U.S. children under age 6 who live in homes where gas stoves are used for cooking or heating have an increased risk of asthma, wheeze and reduced lung function.”
Bottom Lines:
1. Gas cooking stoves are blamed for children’s respiratory illnesses, like asthma, widely in the literature. Almost none of the studies actually measure the exposure of the child to the putative cause: hours exposed to how much gas stove use; measure NO2 levels in the home, whether there are multiple gas appliances in the home (water heaters, clothes dryer, heating appliance), or ambient NO2 in the child’s outdoor environment or school. Many of the studies failed to note or take into account parental smoking in the home.
2. In the UK studies, it was found that poorer homes used the cook stove or oven to heat the house – vastly increasing byproducts of combustion in the home. Homes that use the oven to heat the home are unlikely to leave the windows open for proper ventilation.
3. This topic exposes the often seen “everybody knows” aspect of health sciences in particular. The Health Sciences have already decided that gas cooking stoves are bad – on the thinnest of evidence. Thus, every new study relies on older studies, which themselves rely on even older studies, going back decades, that “sort-of say it is so”. Thus we have the Salt Wars, the Sugar Wars, the Obesity Wars, the Med Diet War, the PM2.5 Wars – all of which are based on the same sort of iffy science. What we need in these areas of study are “start from scratch” proper more-or-less randomized, controlled designs (RCD). And some just plain Good Science.
4. I have a niggling suspicion that there is a concerted effort coming from the anti-fossil-fuels advocacy camp to produce lots of “science” that condemns home gas appliances (stoves, ovens, water heaters and furnaces) as “harmful to the health of children” towards the end of instituting bans on natural gas use in homes. They have had some successes with states and cities. With enough “evidence” (no matter how thin and ephemeral) advocacy groups can petition or sue (as in sue-and-settle) the EPA for “relief”.
Sequence of Events:
1) Trumka [US Consumer Product Safety commissioner ] recommended in October (2022) that the CPSC seek public comment on the hazards associated with gas stoves.
2) Rocky Mountain Institutes submits a meta-analysis paper based on decade old studies to a journal on 4 November 2022, which is published just before Christmas 2022.
3) Armed with the “new study” Trumka blabs out on 9 January 2023 that gas stoves are harmful and Bloomberg had this: “The US Consumer Product Safety Commission will move to regulate gas stoves as new research links them to childhood asthma.” ““This is a hidden hazard,” Trumka Jr. said. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” [ source ]
4) Chaos ensues with wild backpedaling and denials from all quarters in the U.S. administration.
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Author’s Comment:
Before anyone accuses me of conspiracy thinking, let me be perfectly clear. The intention of Rocky Mountain Institute’s study authors, Talor Gruenwald and Brady A. Seals, state clearly, as a policy, that their purpose is to produce research in support of eliminating fossil fuel use in buildings.
And they did. Personally, I think they (RMI) alerted the US Consumer Product Safety Commission in advance of their intention to do the study and what they would find, thus the initiating the call for public comment, to which RMI submitted the paper (maybe a pre-print) in support of a finding of harm.
The anti-fossil fuels groups have way too much funding and very clever public relations professionals planning these campaigns – and they are very successful. To the detriment of the public good.
Thanks for reading.
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Many studies show that asthma is caused by dust mites.
doonman ==> Almost….asthma attacks can be triggered by dust mites. Medicine is still uncertain on what causes asthma.
Cough is the number one symptom in asthma. Better be careful here.
“In another examined study, the finding was: “In the 1977 cross-sectional study, only the prevalence of day or night cough in boys (p « 0.02) and colds going to chest in girls (p < 0.05) were found to be significantly higher in children from homes where gas was used for cooking compared with children from homes where electricity was used.” (NB: Not asthma.] Yes, gas cooking causes boys to cough and girls to get colds in their chests.”
clougho ==> While cough is often a symptom of asthma, it is not a diagnostic for asthma — lots of things cause nighttime coughing.
especially sinus draining while lying.down
And reflux of stomach acids.
The #1 cause of asthma in children today? Parents “hot-boxing” their children in a fog of marijuana smoke. Here’s a statistical analysis to perform … compare the relaxation of marijuana laws with the increased incidence of asthma in children. Yeah, yeah, correlation is not causation … but isn’t that what’s being used in this study as it is?
kenji ==> Smokey air in a household is BAD — no matter what causes the smoke. Smokey fireplace or woodstove, parents smoking anything, constant burning of incense.
Of course, in the 3rd World, cooking on a wood fire or dung fire inside the house.
Well … here in CA … the CARB has BANNED wood burning fireplaces … so that’s been eliminated as a source of kids asthma. So fewer children should be getting asthma. Also … fewer and fewer parents smoke the EVIL tobacco cigarettes than ever. So fewer children should be getting asthma. What’s been increasing exponentially? Marijuana smoking.
But as with everything … marijuana is political. It’s “in favor” politically. Hence there will NEVER be a study correlating marijuana smoking and asthma. That’s how science works … right?
The #1 cause of asthma in children today?
Don’t know but here’s my experience with our first born son. Around 3-4 months old and the wife is relief teaching odd days in Canberra so he goes into childcare. So it begins with seemingly perpetual coughs runny nose and flu type symptoms as he goes on bottle feeding too.
Wife decides this isn’t normal and off to the doc to come home and tell me the diagnosis is he’s likely asthmatic and will need puffer treatment. My BS detector goes to redline and no way. Even to the point where he had a nasty fever and I stayed home bathing him and keeping his temp down one time instead of the usual analgesics. (wife swears if our son dies she’ll never forgive me)
Now I smoked most of my working life until it was advisable to do it outside and for the last 7 or 8 years I vape my nicotine which the missus doesn’t mind inside the home or driving. Son turns 40 this year with 2 tackers of his own and along with his younger sister they’ve never had asthma in their lives.
But get this. Son’s first born daughter at 3 months comes down with fever and symptoms like he did and despite doc visits including evening callout she’s listless and clearly going downhill so admitted to hospital and news comes they’re testing her for dreaded meningitis. Turns out she has 3 viruses all at once (RSV, coronavirus and another that escapes me) and she’d developed bronchiolitis but with intensive care she pulls through against some not so lucky with Code Blues.
Now for the kicker as she’s a 5 year old in school Reception class late last year. While first mum then dad and then younger 3 yr old brother all come down with Covid (yes mum and dad are fully vaxed) she remains Covid free in their infectious household over a 3 to 4 week period. Be alert but don’t talk yourselves into asthma for kids in my experience as they need to build their own immunity.
Gas stoves have been around a lot longer than any increase in childhood asthma.
“After the Fact therefore because of the Fact”. A logical fallacy.
In this case the Fact of gas stoves were widely used for generations before any increase in childhood asthma.
So it’s okay to look at the causes of asthma in children now? Great, let’s look at vaccines shall we? The most frequently cited “study” on the safety of the CDC-recommended(required?) shots are an IOM meta-study in 2012. NO ONE and I repeat NO ONE who ever used that study to defend the insane vaccines that are being injected into kids actually read that meta-study. If they did they’d be an anti-vaxxer like I am. And this was well before the stupid Covid crap.
Oh aren’t convinced asthma is caused by the vaccines? Great, prove it. Autism? Prove it. Allergies? prove it. It HAS NEVER BEEN! Why? Because the pharma-ideologues say it would put kids at risk if they were the control group, i.e., the ones who didn’t get vaxxed.
It’s a scam. I’d say about 75% of all science today is a scam.
The authors should visit huts in India where food is cooked on stoves that burn cow dung.
My family and then myself have only ever had gas stoves and I don’t have asthma after 60 years. I have a cooker hood but only tend to use it when the kitchen starts getting smoky from fat splashing onto the electric grill for example. I have been surprised at how poor it is by getting it to hold up a piece of paper. Speeds 1 and 2 fail but maybe they should be used for all cooking first and then up to 3 if it gets smoky.
There is no mention of the benefits of a gas cookstove over the use of dung, coal, or wood inside a home.
I could not find any mention of the difference between bottled gas and pipeline delivered natural gas. Bottled gas is usually propane which is quite different from methane.
Some jurisdictions have actually subsidised the cost of bottled gas to provide a safer alternative for cooking.
There is a failure to consider the fact that many rural areas of the world do not have access to sufficient electricity to power electric cooking or perhaps even a venting fan.
Often the decision on what to cook with is based on availability and cost. Safety considerations will be the for best we can provide.
I was raised in a home with wood stove cooking and have used gas stoves for almost all of my 80 years. I would consider switching when my gas appliance is no longer serviceable if technology can provide a better alternative at comparable cost of purchase and operation.
If it can be proven to be safer that could enter into my decision process.
Gas stoves have been around for a LONG time. (And don’t forget that gas indoor lighting was once common.)
NOW there is an increase in childhood asthma? Caused by gas stoves?
What else has happened more recently that might account for it besides (the real target) fossil fuels?
For example, plug in home deodorizes?
Not blaming them but they are new along with many other new things.
(Maybe it was Pac-Man?) 😎