@arstechnica
To bring a point up to top-level, for those who assert that "all people need is a hood over the stove”: It doesn’t necessarily vent very well:
"Pollutant capture efficiency (CE) ranged from <15% to >98%, varying across hoods and with airflow and burner position for each hood.”
Junk science. Note the term "contributes to". So, yeah, if you smoke and cook with gas, maybe there's problems.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. a staggering 40 thousand people die in auto accidents. It's not subtle. It's not "contributes to". It's visible, on the freeways every day.
Another 53000 deaths occur thanks to auto emissions per MIT.
But CA still loves its cars.
We don't need to give the right more reasons to hate the left.
@arstechnica from what I've read, these issues have been known for decades. As with most things though, proper ventilation is key, and ventilation didn't really get a thorough look until LEED standards became a thing because everything tended to be drafty somewhere. Those drafts aren't always useful in this context though.
Personally, we have a propane stove (came with the house and electricity is crazy expensive), but the built-in downdraft exhaust is nearly useless; it pulls the flame away from whatever you're trying to cook. Our other option is the whole house fan, which is fine in the summer, but not so much in the winter when it pulls all the smoke from the wood stove into the house.
tl:dr; real solutions need to be worked out, not just a warning label on new appliances.
@arstechnica Rather than labels or bans, how about helpful tips for people who use NAT gas stoves? Proper ventilation greatly reduces the emissions people would be subjected to. A much higher percentage of homes that have gas stoves/ovens do not have overhead ventilation systems that vent to the outside. They just recirculate through “filters” that essentially do nothing for air quality. That certainly doesn’t help our climate problem, at least it would help with the climate inside the home.
@arstechnica Also look at the frequency of this death happening. There is a 0.005 percent per a year of this happening to you if you have a natural gas stove in your home.
If you are in locality where power is expensive or unreliable, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Also, if you have one, you could install a stove hood to help draft the gasses out of the house.
@arstechnica To clarify, this issue centers around natural gas, not propane. Propane combustion does indeed emit more CO2 than natural gas, but natural gas emits methane and other toxic gasses that propane does not.