Biden Admin Mulls Declaring War on Stoves

The Biden administration is considering declaring war on stoves, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission mulling a ban on them. The CPSC says that gas stoves emit “harmful pollutants” and also referenced other reports claiming to link gas stoves to respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and more. 

And if that sounds like junk science, that’s because it is.

One of the studies they cited to support the statistic that more than one-in-ten childhood asthma cases can be linked to gas stoves wasn’t even an actual study that conducted research on children - but rather an analysis of previously published studies on gas stoves and asthma in kids that they mixed together, and the results weren’t statistically significant.  

After being mostly mocked for the potential ban, the CPSC released a statement that they haven’t proposed any regulatory action yet, and that “Agency staff plans to start gathering data and perspectives from the public on potential hazards associated with gas stoves, and proposed solutions to those hazards later this year.” Regardless, they’re leaving the potential of an outright ban on the table. 

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to score some social media points off the news and said that gas stoves were “linked to brain damage” when mocking Rep. Ronny Jackson for opposing banning them.

Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance https://t.co/1bjmHqnHVa

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 11, 2023

You have made videos of yourself cooking on a gas stove pic.twitter.com/TWLVgNp4dm

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) January 11, 2023