In discussions with medical patients about the well-documented air pollution risks from gas stoves, I am sometimes met with a degree of skepticism. People will ask: If gas stoves are this dangerous, how come I haven’t heard about it?
Beginning in the 1970s, the American Gas Association responded to increased scrutiny from regulators into the air quality impacts from gas stoves by developing a campaign to manufacture controversy over the health research. AGA hired the same public relations company, Hill & Knowlton, that masterminded the tobacco industry’s response to research linking cigarettes to cancer. They even hired the same executives responsible for managing the firm’s tobacco account.
AGA’s strategy worked. Industry-funded studies, which found no association between gas stoves and respiratory problems, muddied the waters for regulators, influencing decision-making at the Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Independent studies, on the other hand,for the harm caused by their misinformation campaign, AGA should also be held to account. We should start by asking utilities across the country to withdraw their support for the association.