No Link Found Between Gas Stoves And Respiratory Illness
A new independent analysis published Thursday morning concluded that natural gas-powered stoves are “not a significant determinant of residential indoor air quality.”
The analysis — conducted by the California-based Catalyst Environmental Solutions and commissioned by the California Restaurant Association and the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) — examined dozens of existing studies and government reports.
It concluded that existing research doesn’t establish a significant connection between respiratory illness and gas stove usage despite recent media reports.
“When it comes to the indoor air quality of cooking, the main driver of health risk is what you are cooking, not the fuel that you use to cook it,” Dan Tormey, president of Catalyst Environmental Solutions and chief author of the report, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“A secondary finding is that the most effective way to protect your health during indoor cooking is to have proper ventilation.”
Tormey noted that emissions produced by heating fish in oil, for example, may produce a large number of emissions, sometimes enough to trigger a home’s fire alarm.
He said those emissions are more detrimental to respiratory health than whether the food was cooked on a gas stove or electric stove.
“It is the entire act of cooking, not just the natural gas, but other elements,” he continued. “What you’re cooking, the method you use to cook. And, in addition, [existing] studies don’t separate out other factors.”
“For example, if there’s smoking in the home cigarette smoking, that has a far greater effect than cooking on asthma,” Tormey said. “Interestingly, some studies find that if a child is allergic to a pet in the house — a dog, cat, bird — that has a far greater effect on the occurrence of asthma than the act of cooking.”
The analysis also concluded that proper ventilation, such as a fan above a stove, which is required around the country, is more important than the type of stove used.
Cooking food at a higher temperature may also produce more emissions and have a greater impact on health.
And media coverage and reports often highlight conclusions in research regarding the links between gas stoves and respiratory health that aren’t made by the research itself, according to Tormey.
In fact, large amounts of existing research have found that there is no evidence of an association between gas stove usage and asthma.
“This study is really just to address the misnomer that ‘people may want it, maybe it costs less and it’s easier to get, but you’re killing people.’ That’s just not true,” Dan Dunmoyer, CBIA’s president and CEO, told Fox News Digital. “This study really just points to the fact that there really is not a health impact based on the fuel source.”
“We believe we’re a market-driven industry,” he said. “So, 87 percent of our customers when surveyed want to have the option of what type of fuel they have in their home, whether it’s gas or electric or hydrogen or solar or whatever they prefer. For us, it’s a market-driven world we live in and if the consumer wants an option, we think we should give it to them.”
He noted that homes in California, where state leaders have pushed particularly aggressive electrification of the economy as part of their climate agenda, are already the most energy-efficient.
In early January, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) told Bloomberg that “any option is on the table“ regarding a potential gas stove ban and that unsafe products can be banned, noting gas stoves were a “hidden hazard.”
He added that the idea that cooking had to be done on gas stoves was a “carefully manicured myth.”
In the report, Bloomberg highlighted research published in December showing gas stoves were tied to childhood asthma cases.
However, the Rocky Mountain Institute, a pro-electrification group that funded the study, later walked back the findings and the White House denied that it was interested in banning gas stoves.
The Department of Energy, though, has moved ahead with strict restrictions on future stove purchases and the CPSC has asked for public comments on the safety of gas stoves.
https://principia-scientific.com/no-link-found-between-gas-stoves-and-respiratory-illness/
***********************************************With the ‘expert’ COVID view blown up, green terror must be next
Carbon fuels and the technologies that depend up them are essential to modern society: Pretending that governments can simply mandate them away, ordering replacements into existence, is out-and-out magical thinking — and policy based on unicorns and magic crystals can only bring disaster and suffering.
Yes, the hysterics also point to disasters and suffering. But that involves even more disconnects from reality (long documented by brave skeptics like Bjorn Lomborg and others). Here just a few:
At the 2021 Glasgow UN climate summit, John Kerry said we had only nine years left to stop global warming. That followed Prince (now King) Charles’ 2019 claim that we had only 18 months. Which conflicted with AOC’s claim that same year that we had only 12 years left. Which cut against the 2004 claim from British greens that climate change would destroy all human civilization by 2020. That timeline undermined the 1989 UN prediction that we had only three years left to win the climate fight — a major fail, after the same body said in 1972 that only a decade remained before time ran out.
Consider, too, the climate refugees, i.e., people supposedly sure to be driven from their homes by climate change. The Institute for Economics and Peace predicts as many as 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050; but the big brains have as bad a record here as they do on the date of doomsday. The United Nations not so long ago foresaw 50 million such refugees by 2010, a massive migration flow that utterly failed to materialize.
On individual extreme weather events, the record of “experts” is just as miserable. Despite endless predictions of raging wildfires and city-drowning floods, the overall death toll from such events is down drastically, from about 500,000 worldwide in the 1920s to about 18,000 from 2012 to 2022.
Don’t forget the helpless critters greens love to hype up. Remember the vanishing polar bear, a keystone of Al Gore’s moral-panic masterpiece “An Inconvenient Truth”? Turns out their numbers are up from 2.5 to five times since the ’60s. The allegedly dying coral of the Great Barrier Reef now holds more coral than at any time since record-keeping began.
Green fanatics, the numbers show, are just as much in the dark about the climate situation as Anthony Fauci et al were about COVID. Their “solutions” — ban gas stoves! mandate Teslas! eat mealworms! — are equally nonsensical, catering to the imaginations and emotions of rich progressives rather than aiming rationally to mitigate the (very real) risks climate change actually presents.
It’s time we stopped listening to them, for good.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/04/with-the-expert-covid-view-blown-up-green-terror-must-be-next/
************************************************Honda repeats pledge: Petrol engines to continue beyond 2040
The boss of Honda believes traditional petrol and diesel engines will continue to 2040 and beyond.
Honda had previously said it would switch to electric and hydrogen power across its range by 2040, but in an interview with news outlet Reuters, CEO Toshihiro Mibe suggested that timeframe could be extended.
Mr Mibe said Honda was conducting feasibility studies to determine the future of petrol and diesel engines – also referred to as internal-combustion engines – as well as into the increasing dominance of battery technology.
"I’ve been in the engine development business for more than 30 years, so personally [the transition to electric is] a little threatening," he told Reuters.
"But I have to separate my own feelings from what is best for the business."
While many car companies have outlined a move to electric vehicles by 2030 or 2035, Honda is one of the few to express a more conservative viewpoint, suggesting there will still be a place for typical engines by 2040.
Some industry experts are worried developing nations may not have the electrical infrastructure in place to switch away from petrol and diesel, particularly in rural areas.
Despite having a longer time horizon for a complete switch to electric cars than its competitors, in April 2022 Honda revealed plans to launch 30 new battery-powered vehicles by 2030 – including two sports cars and what is believed to be an electric ute.
Honda expects hybrid and electric vehicles will account for 40 per cent of its sales by the end of this decade.
Multiple reports in the second half of 2022 all but confirmed one of those sports cars would be a successor to the NSX.
As part of its transition to electric vehicles, Honda announced it is partnering with General Motors to use its Ultium electric-car battery architecture for future models – as well as announcing a separate partnership with technology company Sony to launch a new electric-car brand called Afeela.
Mr Mibe reiterated that Honda is also working on its own electric-car architecture,
https://www.drive.com.au/news/honda-sees-petrol-engines-beyond-2040
**********************************************Australian Labor Party makes dramatic coal policy backflip that's sure to infuriate the party's green left
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has risked a serious rift within his party by flagging the possibility of buying back Australia's largest coal-fired power station in a bid to shore up the state's energy supply and bring down electricity bills.
The Australian Energy Market Operator last week warned the east coast could face rolling blackouts with renewable energy generation and gas unlikely to keep up with demand in the next few years.
Despite the impending threat of the lights going out, coupled with spiralling retail energy costs, there has been great reluctance from governments to pour money into the fossil fuel industry - fearing backlash from environmentally-conscious voters.
But Mr Minns appears to be positioning Labor for a major backflip in energy policy ahead of the March 25 election.
The Opposition leader said a government he leads may look to take control of the Eraring power station in Lake Macquarie, which is scheduled to close in 2025, seven years earlier than previously planned.
'I'm not going to let the power run out in NSW, and I'm not going to rule out (buying Eraring),' he told told 2GB's Ben Fordham. 'It might be a negotiation between the government and a private company and I acknowledge that before the election, I'm putting that out there.'
Mr Minns said Eraring provides 25 per cent of NSW's electricity needs. 'If it's taken offline, and there's not the firming power in place, we could have major shortages,' he said.
When its owner Origin Energy made the announcement last year that it would close in 2025, NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said he was disappointed by the decision.
He promised the state would build what he described as the 'biggest battery in the southern hemisphere' to make up for the power production that would be lost. But, having sold the plant in 2013, the Coalition then tried to buy it back in 2021 for almost five times the selling price.
'This power station was sold for $50million, Matt Kean tried to buy it back for $240million,' Mr Minns said. 'When you sell off critical infrastructure that the state needs, it undermines industry, the economy and the budget position in the long run.'
The Labor leader's comments came after Mr Kean said the Coalition, if reelected, could intervene to keep Eraring open past 2025 to ease shortfalls and rising prices.
But as Labor flipped to a more pro-coal view of power supply, the Liberals flipped the other way and Mr Kean walked away from what he had said hours earlier.
Premier Dominic Perrottet, whose Liberal Party is facing strong challenges from pro-environment Teal candidates in several seats, said intervening to extend Eraring's lifespan was 'not part of our plans'.
'We have an energy roadmap that's delivering $32billion of private sector investment to ensure we have a long term reliable and clean energy future. That's our plan,' he said.
The Premier added that he and Mr Kean were 'on completely the same page' about the power station's future.
Mr Minns told Fordham that the Australian Energy Market Operator - the national regulator - 'released a report last week indicating that we do need to worry about shortfalls in supply in the energy markets over the next 24 months'.
He said one of the reasons Labor plans to set up a NSW Energy Security Corporation is because 'we're worried about exactly these things'.
'When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing we need to make sure we’ve got dispatchable power for the people of NSW,' Mr Minns said.
'At the moment that's not going to happen because Matt Kean has not done the work to make sure there's energy security within the network. 'I can't rule out further action in relation to Eraring.
The Coalition sold off all five NSW coal-fired power plants since it won power in 2011, while the previous Labor NSW government sold off energy suppliers, but Mr Minns has ruled out any further privatisation if Labor wins power.
In February, he said 'Privatisation does not work. It has been a disaster for NSW and under Labor it stops.'
If Labor bought Eraring back, it would be the opposite of privatisation, it would mean the state taking back control of a previously privatised asset.
If the buyback was about almost anything other than a coal-fired power station it would get the backing of Labor's left and the Greens.
But it does concern fossil fuels - and Mr Minns will have calculated that however many votes the switch loses to the Greens and minor parties the decision will come back in spades in the seats Labor needs to win in Western Sydney.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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