Imagine you live in California (hard to do, I know, just play along), you're in the market for a stove, and you just can't decide: gas or electric.
The state just passed a law that will help you decide. It wants to slap a huge warning label on the gas stove hoping to scare you off from buying.
"WARNING," it reads. "Gas stoves can release nitrogen dioxide, benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and other harmful pollutants into the air, which can be toxic to people and pets. Stove emissions, especially from gas stoves, are associated with increased respiratory disease. Young children, people with asthma, and people with heart or lung disease are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of combustion pollutants. To help reduce the risk of breathing harmful gases, allow ventilation in the area and turn on a vent hood when gas-powered stoves and ranges are in use."
Brevity is not part of the mandate.
Indeed, California is the world capital of warning labels. Proposition 65 informs Californians about the substances they are exposed to and is designed to prevent "unnecessary pollution." They never get around to explaining what's "necessary pollution."
The list of substances grows every year as do the earning labels. The list of products that contain an offending, supposedly cancer-causing chemical is endless. Electrical wires, jewelry, padlocks, dishes, flashlights, and pesticides are just a few.
Assembly Bill 2513 was less stringent when Assemblymember Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Clara) proposed it in February. It has since been modified with enough scare adjectives to frighten consumers about using natural gas for anything.
Despite the histrionics of the bill, 38 percent of U.S. homes use natural gas. NPR attributes Americans' affinity for gas stoves to a "decades-old 'cooking with gas' campaign." The gas stove industry undoubtedly spends money on advertising—as every industry does. But it seems like a stretch to claim, as NPR does, that "tobacco-style tactics" are responsible for the persistence of gas stoves. Home chefs "despise electric stoves [because] they take more time to initially heat up and are slower to respond when heat is ratcheted up or down," Reason's Liz Wolfe explains.
The entity that is making a concerted effort to change consumer preferences isn't primarily gas-stove manufacturers; it's California's state government. Pellerin's official website states that the "initiative aims to increase consumer awareness of the environmental and health impacts of gas stoves." The invocation of the environmental impacts of gas stoves gives the lie to claim that the bill is solely about public health.
The evidence that any of these chemicals put consumers at a greater risk of cancer is dubious. Many of the studies that led to the warning labels have been questioned. Some have been debunked.
This study questioned respondents about six chemicals on the Proposition 65 list, but didn't assess how these chemicals might affect health or which products might carry warnings. The study also failed to report the percentage of participants who had heard of Proposition 65.
A study on the effects of Proposition 65 on cancer incidence
This study found that Proposition 65 had a statistically significant effect on cancer incidence gaps between three comparison locations and San Francisco, but the effect was very weak and vanished with slight changes in lag lengths.
When the researchers have their own agenda, the results can't be trusted. This is especially true when environmental fanatics are put in charge of regulating consumer products. These are people who want everything absolutely safe and absolutely clean — without giving up our flush toilets or electric lights.
Sue and I can't cook on electric stoves. We had one for seven years and never got used to cooking on it. I love the gas stove we have now. They can put warning labels on it telling me I'm going to die if I use it, and that won't convince me to get rid of it.
