In the News

Gas stoves, particularly those that are not well ventilated — or for which homeowners do not consistently use ventilation — emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter into the home at levels the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and that are linked to respiratory illness, including asthma, cardiovascular problems, cancer and other health conditions. That’s according to reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society. 

The CPSC, already walking back some of Trumka’s initial statements, is likely to settle on a compromise approach. A report from New York University Policy Integrity this spring detailed some of those options, including requiring that stoves be sold with hoods, establishing performance standards for those hoods, or equipping gas stoves with sensors that alert the user of pollution concentrations.

“No one’s going to walk into their kitchen tomorrow morning and find a hole where the gas range used to be,” the NYU report co-author, Jack Lienke, said. “The bottom line is that Congress created the CPSC to ensure that consumer products — including home appliances — are reasonably safe. A growing body of evidence indicates that gas stoves aren’t. If the Commission ignored this reality, it wouldn’t be doing its job.”

The Biden administration is considering a nationwide ban on gas stoves — citing the harmful pollutants released by the appliances, according to a report. Reports by groups including the American Chemical Society and New York University Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity found gas stoves — which are used in about 40% of US homes while the remainder use various forms of electric cookers — emit pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ca​rbon monoxide and fine matter at levels deemed unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization.

The public health benefits of building decarbonization are extensive and relevant to all households. According to an April 2022 report by the Institute for Policy Integrity, lower-income households and people of color are especially vulnerable to gas-stove pollution, since these groups already experience worse air pollution, and are more likely to live in smaller homes with limited ventilation.

“California gets to experiment,” said Meredith Hankins, a senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. “They get to go first and explore how much can we reduce emissions. ... It’s a very well-established provision, and now red states are arguing that it’s unconstitutional.”

Too long neglected, occupational health and safety may be at a turning point.  Workers Memorial Day on April 28 offers an opportunity to reflect on what each of us—as scientists, public health professionals, engineers, economists, policymakers, activists, community members, and voting constituents—can bring to the fight for science-based protections that will make our workplaces safer.

The Trump administration revoked California’s waiver in 2019, arguing that it should not set standards for other states. The decision was the most serious manifestation of President Donald Trump’s resentment of California’s environmental leadership, says Richard Revesz of New York University.

Past regulations to deal with cross-state air pollution were "very successful” in cutting NOx releases, said Jack Lienke, regulatory policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity, a liberal-leaning think tank based at New York University. “The reason that we need a new rule is not because those rules were failures," Lienke said. “It’s because the target has changed.”

You may have noticed quite a few headlines recently about EPA, NHTSA, cars, trucks, waivers, model years, and lawsuits. It’s worth breaking down this flurry of activity, all of which seeks to address vehicle emissions. Here, I’ll clarify the current status of the five separate proceedings happening right now, and offer a preview of what’s to come.

Legal challenges are almost certain for finalized rules that tighten up nitrogen oxides emissions from the freight fleet, but critics looking to take future standards to court will likely face an “uphill battle,” according to Institute for Policy Integrity attorney Meredith Hankins. “Certainly there are costs to the industry, we can’t paper over that, but you can see that the overall net benefits for society under these rules are quite high,” Hankins said.