In the News

The delays are fueling concern among both outside activists and Washington insiders, who warn that federal agencies face a narrow window to finalize enduring climate actions before the end of the president’s first term. One recent development could accelerate the administration’s pace of progress, even though it largely flew under the radar in Washington. On Dec. 21, when many people were tuning out the news around the holidays, the Senate confirmed Richard “Ricky” Revesz to lead the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which vets hundreds of rules each year.

Recent remarks from a federal consumer safety regulator are escalating a debate among climate advocates, the natural gas industry and lawmakers about whether gas cooking stoves pose health hazards -- even though officials have not proposed any new health standards for the equipment, much less a “ban” on new or existing models. An April 2022 report from the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) summarizes that “[w]ithin just a few minutes of cooking, … pollutant concentrations can exceed levels” that both EPA and the World Health Organization (WHO) “have deemed unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and other serious health conditions.”

The consumer commission has several options it could consider should it choose to dive into stove regulation. A report last year from New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity argued that the CPSC could require warning labels on gas stoves, conduct public education campaigns about their dangers or, most directly, issue mandatory rules to reduce the risks.

Researchers at the Institute for Policy Integrity released a report calling for gas stoves to be sold with warning labels and requirements for better ventilation, while pointing to studies concluding that low-income households and people of color were more likely to live in homes with poor ventilation.

A report by the Institute for Policy Integrity says that natural gas stoves produce dangerous levels of air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. These pollutants a stove can emit can exacerbate asthma and are linked to other diseases, like inflammation of organs and cancer, according to the Institute for Policy Integrity report.

"Causal relationships between adverse health effects and [particulate matter] have been found at long-term exposure levels well below [the Environmental Protection Agency's] ambient limits for outdoor air, which indoor concentrations caused by gas stoves likely exceed," the report said. 

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.”

Gas burning stoves are getting a second look not just from groups concerned about their contribution to global warming but from US regulators, who are raising concerns about health hazards as well. Natural gas stoves emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the US Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer and other health conditions, according to reports by groups including the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society.

A federal agency is reportedly considering a ban on gas stoves on the heels of rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. Gas stoves, used in more than  40 million U.S. homes, emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization said are unsafe and linked to respiratory disease, heart issues, cancer and other medical problems, according to reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society.

Political momentum against gas stoves — a fixture in more than a third of homes in the U.S. — is mounting as more information comes to light about their impact on indoor air quality and respiratory health. Stoves and ovens can emit carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene at levels high enough to exceed public health standards, according to a study published in the journal of Environmental Science & Technology in October. Children of color living in low-income households are particularly at risk, according to the Institute for Policy Integrity.