CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir offered up a strange analogy on multiple Wednesday installments of CNN Newsroom when discussing the possibility of a ban on gas stoves. As Weir tells it, having a gas stove, particularly in small apartments, is akin to an idling car.
During the 9 AM Eastern hour reported that, “They’ve banned it in new construction in New York City, out west in California, Washington State, but a lot of states have preemptively banned gas bans and you can imagine they're usually red states and Texas leading the way, they want to stop this because it’s an existential threat to that business.”
However, “the science is showing us having a gas stove, in a small apartment especially with bad ventilation is like having a car idling there. And if you have young kids, it can affect cognitive abilities and, as well as asthma.”
Later on Wednesday, after President Biden announced his opposition to such a ban, Weir was on the 1 PM Eastern edition of CNN Newsroom when he elaborated a bit on his earlier point:
More science comes to light that burning an open flame of methane in your house creates kind of the same exhaust that comes out of your car. There's nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, and particulate matter and if you're not in a well-vented place, if you’re in a small apartment, especially with children with developing lungs and brains, that can affect cognition.
Weir added that, “We have statistics, I think 35 percent of American homes have gas stoves, but childhood asthma attributed to gas stoves, 12 percent, so it’s not a small number to worry about and so Cory Booker and other senators wrote a letter to the president saying or to the consumer protection folks and said let's think about making mandatory hoods, vent hoods on gas stoves, cut-off valves so they don't leak.”
Carbon monoxide from a car running in an enclosed space will eventually kill you. One can be concerned about childhood asthma and still see that they are different and, again, this is mostly a problem with poor ventilation. Other household appliances that emit carbon monoxide include your water heater and older dryer models.
These segments were sponsored by Consumer Cellular and Colonial Penn.
Here are transcripts for the January 11 shows:
CNN Newsroom
1/11/2023
9:53 AM ET
BILL WEIR: But it speaks to the emotion—
ERICA HILL: Yeah.
WEIR: -- of food and how we prepare it and certain styles, and this is 100 years of advertising. "You're cooking with gas now" was a deliberate campaign from the American Gas Association when they were up against wood and coal back in the '30s.
Even today, a couple of years, it was found that they were sort of paying influencers to cook with their gas stoves because electric, frankly, is so superior, just in terms of, it’s much more efficient, it’s safer, the new induction cells are safer and all of that. And this has created, sort of, gas wars in different parts of the country.
They’ve banned it in new construction in New York City, out west in California, Washington State, but a lot of states have preemptively banned gas bans and you can imagine they're usually red states and Texas leading the way, they want to stop this because it’s an existential threat to that business, but, yeah, it’s, you know, the science is showing us having a gas stove, in a small apartment especially with bad ventilation is like having a car idling there.
HILL: Wow.
WEIR: And if you have young kids, it can affect cognitive abilities and, as well as asthma.
***
CNN Newsroom
1/11/2023
1:42 PM ET
BILL WEIR: More science comes to light that burning an open flame of methane in your house creates kind of the same exhaust that comes out of your car. There's nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, and particulate matter and if you're not in a well-vented place, if you’re in a small apartment, especially with children with developing lungs and brains, that can affect cognition.
We have statistics, I think 35 percent of American homes have gas stoves, but childhood asthma attributed to gas stoves, 12 percent, so it’s not a small number to worry about and so Cory Booker and other senators wrote a letter to the president saying or to the consumer protection folks and said let's think about making mandatory hoods, vent hoods on gas stoves, cut-off valves so they don't leak. Maybe more warnings and education about the hidden dangers of that kind of stove, but this is an emotional thing. A lot of people love cooking with gas.
