The Exchanges

Q So specifically, what are the findings that you released in this latest report?

A There are these things called meta-analyses, so these look at all the studies that have come before them, and they summarize the data of all these individual studies, and so the last meta-analysis we have from 2013, they looked at the 41 studies that came before, and they said, based on all these results, we conclude that children living in a home with a gas stove have a 42% increased risk of having asthma. So the latest study is very straightforward. We partnered with two epidemiologists, and we used a common tool in which we looked at this relative risk, this 42%, and we said, okay, let's apply this to U.S. Census data, and we know how many homes with children cook with gas in the U.S. It's about 43%, um, and so we just applied this increased risk, and it shows the strength of their relationship, and we found that 12.7% of childhood asthma Could be attributed to gas stove use, but in some states it was much higher because, for example, in Illinois, 80% of households with children cook with gas, and so for, in that state, it was about 21%, similar in California and New York. So this is very much a, a state-specific piece, and, and the, the difference in the numbers is totally related to how many households with children cook with gas.

AI assessment note: “we found that 12.7% of childhood asthma Could be attributed to gas stove use”

Q outrage cycle and into the data. What does 50 years of research tell us about the impact of gas stoves? And how might the latest findings influence the policy push to get gas out of buildings? So, tell me about the origins of your focus on gas stoves specifically. Like, how did this question about indoor air quality and human health and gas stoves start to come up for you?

A So RMI is focused on the energy transition. How do we get rid of fossil fuels and start using renewables across any sector that uses energy, which is a lot. So I happen to be in our buildings program, and we were looking at things like heat pumps and furnaces, and how do we, how do we really move off of fossil fuels? But an interesting thing started happening. Uh, we started talking to Public health experts and air quality experts who said, you know, the gas stove has this outsized health impact. There's been years of studies with very little action on how gas stoves are linked to poor health, and the more we talk to researchers, the more we talk to health and air quality experts, we realized that there was this huge trove of research, but it hadn't really been condensed and put out there into the public realm.

AI assessment note: “we were looking at things like heat pumps and furnaces... But an interesting thing started happening”