Will the Russians nuke us? Or high-tension power lines fry our brains? Could we be poisoned by the water? By fluoride, or lead? Are we being gulled by subliminal advertising? Blinded by sitting too close to color television? Or by computer screens? Cooked by microwave ovens? Will cellphones give us brain cancer? Are we being crushed by overpopulation — too many kids. No, bankrupted by aging demographics — not enough kids. A new ice age, no, global warming. Africanized killer bees, on the move north. Would the airbag in my Honda slit my carotid artery instead of saving me? Will AI — Artificial Intelligence — start churning out content in one corner of the internet while consuming it in another, shutting humans out of the loop entirely and somehow destroying the world?
Honestly, by the time gas stoves were raised as a peril, I’d had a lifetime of ooo-scary threats that proved illusionary, an endless car alarm blare of empty warnings, so many that I’ve become immune. News of any danger without the immediacy of “you’re bleeding” is safely ignored.
Seriously. Last summer, a colleague phoned to say his Chicago cop friend was concerned about people on Twitter threatening to kill me. I chewed on this a moment, then replied, “Are they on their way here, now, to get me?” They weren’t. So I went back to gardening.
So naturally, the alarm about gas stoves left me unmoved. This week, when the state of New York banned gas stoves in new construction, I didn’t feel either the planet nor Empire State children are being saved. I grew up with an electric stove, burning myself more than once on coils that were off but still raise-a-blister hot. Supposedly the new electric stoves are better, but gas stoves are what pros cook on — you’d no sooner go into the kitchen in a fine restaurant and find an electric stove than you’d expect to see them emptying cans of Progresso into a big pot for the soup d’jour.
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I'm skeptical...show me the science.
ReplyDeleteC'mon Mike, don't be lazy. To sprawl on the floor and demand science is just lame, and suggests that you don't actually care. It takes one second to find it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-health-risks-of-gas-stoves-explained/#:~:text=A%202013%20meta%2Danalysis%20of,attributed%20to%20gas%20stove%20use.
DeleteI've never been much for seeking out high quality restaurants, but early in life I discovered what sets apart so-called "greasy spoons." Long ago, there was a restaurant of sorts at the corner of 78th and Exchange that I visited once for God knows what and happened to notice the familiar red and white can of Campbell's tomato soup behind the counter, but it was huge, at least 10 times the size of the cans I was used to: I'm guessing it held 5 gallons of the concoction we kids would have been pleased to eat every jour.
ReplyDeletejohn
My buddy was the head cook at a state university's student union. I think those cans may be what he called "Number Ten" cans...and yeah, that is probably because they are ten times the size of the ones on store shelves.
DeleteHe bought a '47 Ford school bus that was outfitted with six bunk beds, and a whole lot of those cans made up the bulk of the food supply for our road trip out West in '71.
When the engine blew in Wyoming, that old bus was stuck at a Wyoming truck stop for 13 days, awaiting a replacement motor from Detroit Try eating canned ravioli, chili, and beans from cans that size--for almost two weeks. Luckily, I didn't have to...I got off the bus in Boulder.
Good to read you of all people isn't buying into the mythology of gas-forced stoves.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling everyone, if I had 6 turkeys to cook on Thanksgiving with only 6 hours to cook them, it's impossible even with a gas oven and that's not considering my 1940s train depot-era converted home's wooden doors where the air all escapes and the doors go up in flames.
It's science, baby!
I'm trying to be on board with this. But why now? Why weren't the health issues obvious decades ago? And wouldn't limiting corporate pollution have a larger impact on health, especially where environmental racism is killing people?
ReplyDeleteOur dark brown 70s stove came right from a department store sales floor. It had a workspace on top and even had a large storage cabinet for pots and pans. Rather than buy a new one, we repeatedly had replacement parts shipped from the factory in Tennessee, and salvaged useable parts from a junked stove. A broken gas pipe leak finally did it in--after almost 45 years. Would an electric unit last even half that long before the coils burned out? I wouldn't bet on it.
ReplyDelete"We’ve known for a long time that [nitrogen dioxide] has many harmful effects on health" the guy says in the Scientific American article you linked to. I second 10:58 Anonymous' question -- why is this just blowing up now?
ReplyDeleteWe have a gas stove and are not going to be replacing it anytime soon. After about 4 decades of having grown up with, and then continuing with electric stoves, I do find using the gas burners preferable. On the other hand, our tea kettle recently broke. We use it multiple times a day. Hedging our bets, we replaced it with an electric version. Woo-hoo, happy days! ; )
Because that federal official stupidly said something about banning them. Which states are now doing.
DeleteI'm all for banning bans on bans; or is it banning banning bans on bans? Anyway, I'm ag'n it!
ReplyDeletejohn
I'd like to offer a mild defense of Progresso soups here. They're tasty, come in a wild variety of recipes (multiple versions of clam chowder alone), and those promising bodies in the soup (veggies, noodles, beef, whatever) deliver those bodies, in spades. Campbell's, in comparison, offers weak, watery broth, and only a grudging amount of bodies sufficient to meet requirements of the FDA or FTC or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIf your average greasy spoon wants to offer Progresso for their appetizer choices (and let's face it, the kitchen crew of a little storefront joint is not going to be slaving over a $3.00 soup appetizer), I would say that they chose well.
No disrespect intended toward Progresso soups. I love them — particularly the tomato with dumplings. At home. For a restaurant to serve them, well, it's like a restaurant picking up Popeye's fried chicken and serving it. It seems like cheating.
DeleteI replaced a 30+ year old gas range with a new gas range from Abt about 6 years ago. When the crew took it off the truck & opened the box it had a dent in the side. The driver said I could get a new one or they'd give 10% back on the price. I took the 10%, since the dent is covered by the cabinet next to it & doesn't show.
ReplyDeleteIf we were starting fresh today, would we build two systems, gas and electric? Burning the methane in natural gas is better for the planet than letting it escape into the atmosphere. It traps more heat but dissipates faster than CO2, someone's probably done the math but I'd guess kitchen appliances are the least of our worries. There are chefs adapting to induction stovetops and I don't recall any stories about electric ranges blowing houses to bits. Our biggest problem is time and the men who market unnecessary, dangerous and obsolete products to the unwitting and unwise.
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