California bill requiring tobacco-style health warning labels on gas stoves still on Newsom's desk

The California legislature recently passed a bill that will put warning labels on gas stoves, like we have on tobacco products. The bill awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

Gas stove are used to cook in nearly 50 million U.S. homes, but California has been engaged in an aggressive campaign to eliminate the gas-powered appliance. Driven by anti-fossil fuel groups, like the Sierra Club, dozens of communities in California have effectively banned them by banning natural gas lines in new construction.

As energy expert Robert Bryce reported in April on his Substack, the movement was dealt a blow in April when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the nation’s first ban on natural gas violates federal law. 

Undeterred by the defeat, anti-fossil fuel activists are hoping that they can dissuade consumers from using gas appliances by convincing them they’re deadly.

The label the California bill would require states: “WARNING: 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.”

Why the label will carry the British spelling of “gases” is unclear, but the label the bill would require appears much more alarmist in tone than the original bill’s required label, which would have stated, “WARNING: A gas stove or oven range in use can release nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide inside homes at levels exceeding the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for outdoor air quality. The presence of these pollutants may exacerbate preexisting respiratory illnesses or lead to the development of asthma, especially in children. To lower the risk of breathing in these harmful gases, allow ventilation in the area and turn on a vent hood when gas-powered stoves and ranges are in use.”

During debates on the bill in the California Legislature, supporters cited a study by the anti-fossil fuel group Rocky Mountain Institute. Less than a month after it was published, Bloomberg interviewed Consumer Public Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. about the alleged health impacts from gas stoves, asking if the commission would take action.

Trumka told Bloomberg “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned." 

Critics of RMI’s gas stove study argue that the quality of the data it used was poor because it didn’t factor in findings of a 2013 by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies  which is considered the most comprehensive global study on the topic to date. 

That study found no association between respiratory illnesses and homes in which natural gas was used. As is the case with many anti-fossil fuel policies, supporters disregard the shortcomings of studies supporting their agenda and continue to rally around them.

After the public uproar over Trumka’s suggestion of a federal ban on gas stoves, the Biden-Harris administration in August finalized weaker efficiency standards that stopped short of a ban.

Jack Nicastro, assistant editor at Reason, called the gas-stove label’s language “histrionics” and argued, despite proponents’ claims that the labels will promote public health, they provide no useful information.

“There's no corresponding effort to educate consumers with statistics on the extent to which gas stoves increase the concentration of nitrogen dioxide and rates of respiratory illness or other relevant information,” Nicastro wrote. 

Newsom has until the end of September to sign the bill into law, according to NPR.