Did you know that cities and states have been outlawing the inclusion of gas in new buildings? The Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering banning gas stoves in the US. There are some major health and environmental issues with gas and gas stoves. Listen in for the details and some great alternatives.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90834734/gas-stoves-cities-states-ban
https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/cooktops/the-best-induction-cooktops-a1194688661/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/business/gas-stove-ban-federal-agency/index.html
This is a really hot topic in the building, construction, and interior design world these days. I think it's something that a lot of people are not aware of and it's going to impact our future for sure. So I think we need to talk about gas stoves, why they're being outlawed, and then also some of my favorite alternatives. I'm gonna break down some of the rumors around induction, which a lot of people don't understand. I will go into my personal experience about how much I love induction.
So gas stoves are being outlawed. Why? Well, Berkeley was the first city to outlaw gas stoves and their reasoning was because they contribute to greenhouse emissions. So there is an environmental impact here. But there also is a health impact. But Berkeley was not the only one, many cities also jumped on board. New York City and San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC. There are also some states that have started this ban, like Arizona and Tennessee.
So what is this ban? It really is making it so that you cannot have gas in new construction. So in your existing homes, no one is going to come in and take away your gas stove. But if you know some of the information that I'm going to share about gas stoves, you might be wanting to switch.
The consumer protection agency, the Federal government, is also considering a ban of gas stoves specifically. Previously, the gas ban was related to gas in a home or in a building, not just related to the stove, it's related to gas heat as well. And just you know, gas in the home, fireplaces, all that sort of thing. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering a ban on gas stoves specifically. Again, this would be related to new products, not ones you have currently in your home. The reason why is because they emit pollutants. Recent studies have shown that gas stoves can emit nitrogen dioxide, methane, and other irritating pollutants. Of course these can cause health and respiratory problems. These studies have shown that for kids this is especially harmful. A recent study showed that children living in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to have childhood asthma. This is not a small number.
The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a study in December 2022 that found that indoor gas stove usage is associated with an increased risk of current asthma among children. The study found that 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use. Let me repeat that, again 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use. Gosh, this is a really big deal.
If cities and, and states are outlawing gas, not just for the health repercussions, but also for the environment, we need to pay attention, right? I mean, those stats about childhood asthma are a reason alone to think about switching out your gas stove.
I'm going to share my experience with induction because when people say gas stoves are going to be outlawed, they get really angry about it. Because gas is a very responsive way to use heat if you're cooking. Many people think that a flat top non-gas cooktop is electric. The electric takes forever, it gets really hot, it's very hard to control the heat that you're getting. But there is another option that I've had in my home personally, my past two homes, and I love it. Most people don't realize that it's actually more responsive than gas. And that is induction. Induction sounds kind of crazy the way that it works. It's a special type of electric cooktop that gets its energy from an electromagnetic field that is below the glass cooktop surface. That energy transfers to the cookware which is magnetic, causing the pan or the cookware itself to heat up, not the surface. It uses that electromagnetic energy to heat the pan itself, not the cooktop surface. I recently did an Instagram story on this so go check out my highlights. But this is why I love induction so much. Most people think that let's say you're cooking on an electric stovetop and you make spaghetti sauce. If you spill it on the electric stovetop, it burns it and it's super hard to clean. Induction does not do that. Because the induction cooktop is not hot. It might be slightly warm because the hot pan was near it. But the only thing that gets truly hot is the pan itself, not the cooktop. So if you spill something over, it is not going to bake on and stick to it. And because it has this electromagnetic energy, it is super responsive. What's really amazing about induction is that if you're boiling water and you turn it down, you can actually immediately see the size of the bubbles get smaller. It truly is faster than gas. It's faster because with gas, that energy has to go from the gas to the pan. But with induction, the pan is what has the energy. So it's just that much faster than turning down the knob on a gas stove. It's just crazy. As I said earlier, I've used induction myself for the past 10 years. I am an early adopter of induction in the US. I love it. The rest of the world uses induction way more than the US because of the health repercussions of gas. Not only that, but how responsive it is. The other thing that I like about induction versus gas is if you have gas in your home, you may have noticed that film that you get on your cabinets. That simply does not happen with induction because there's not those chemicals being emitted so they don't build up on your cabinets, like with a gas stove. So it is so much cleaner and also so much healthier for you.
The one negative to induction cookware is that your pans have to be magnetic. So that is something that you might have to do if you switch to induction. You may have to get all new pots and pans because a lot of those nonstick, which you probably shouldn't be using anyway, are not magnetic. I've also found that a lot of the ceramic ones are not magnetic as well. But stainless steel is and cast iron is. So again those are my go to pots and pans for their safety but also because of my induction stove. So the one negative is that you have to have cookware that is magnetic for it to work.
So that's the details on gas stoves, why they're being outlawed, why you should think about an alternative, and also my personal experience with induction and how much I love it, and why you should think about that if you're stove shopping in the near future.
As always, DM me with any questions or email me at megan@detox.design.
