My childhood was shadowed by asthma and frequent bronchitis. We lived in Cleveland where open hearth furnaces and coke plants tainted the air with soot and corrosive sulphur. There is a reason that it is called “the rust belt.”

But the friendly ol’ gas stove we cooked on may have contributed. Read more below.

Stoves

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is weighing action on the indoor air pollution caused by gas-powered stoves. Such appliances are in use in 40 percent of homes in the U.S. and emit nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels that the EPA has linked to respiratory illness. The data is particularly worrisome when it comes to kids and air pollutants from stoves: A new study published last month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that over 12 percent of childhood asthma cases in the United States could be attributed to the usage of gas stoves.

Ari Natter, Bloomberg via NumLock News

The US has a huge investment in natural gas infrastructure. We would like to think of gas as the most benign of the fossil fuels — you can burn it in your unvented kitchen or an unvented fireplace. But now we suspect there is a grim hidden cost. It’s hurting our kids.

Can we find ways to leave natural gas in the ground? For the sake of our children and our planet?