Personally, I liked cooking with natural gas or propane. The instant response of the burner to my adjustments was easier to manage than the electric with its minutes of lag. However, a growing body of research is pointing to health problems with asthma caused by gas. So much of the world’s lethargic response to the dangers of dependence on fossil fuels is because we can’t immediately see the harm. We love the convenience and it’s cheap. But the insidious long term effects are costly in dollars and human suffering.
PSE Healthy Energy – Nitrogen Dioxide Exposure and Impacts from Gas Stoves
This peer-reviewed study, published in Science Advances, is the first to quantify the link between stoves and asthma due to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposures in the home.
Leave it in the ground.
The other problem with using natural gas (methane) or propane is that when it comes out of the ground, especially when fracking is involved, radioactive radon gas comes up with it. The decay products of radon, the so called “radon daughters” are also radioactive. One of those “radon daughters is strontium-90 which is a “bone seeker,” it is chemically similar to calcium. That low level radiation that is released in the human body is what causes leukemia and bone cancer. The only methane we should use is the methane from sewage treatment, landfills and agricultural feedlots or methane digesters from plant & animal wastes. Methane that escapes from wells or pipelines is a worse heat trapping, green house gas than carbon dioxide, so burning it and maybe using it for heating, generating electricity or as a vehicle fuel should be the only use of this type of methane. Drilling more wells for gas and oil should be used for cook stoves, electricity generation or vehicle, ships or train locomotives.