To make public housing healthier, electric stoves and ovens should be the standard

The nation’s public-housing system provides homes to hundreds of thousands of low-income families, many of them Black or Hispanic. That makes availability and condition of public housing an enormously important factor in health equity. Replacing gas stoves and appliances in these homes with electric ones would advance equity.

The Biden administration has initiated meaningful improvements and investments to the public housing stock in the U.S. These have included establishing long-overdue basic safety standards like ensuring that all public housing units are equipped with carbon monoxide alarms, and updating energy efficiency standards, which will make families more comfortable and save money. But it needs to go further. Gas stoves and appliances are now well established as a threat to public health. Residents of public housing deserve a plan to transition their homes to modern electric appliances.

A study published in early May in the journal Science Advances only adds to the urgency to address this problem. A team of researchers found that gas and propane stoves are a significant source of nitrogen dioxide pollution, exceeding what the World Health Organization says is a safe level of short-term exposure. Breathing in nitrogen dioxide drives childhood asthma, chronic inflammatory lung disease, heart disease, low birth weight, and premature births.

People can reach three-quarters of their total WHO long-term exposure for nitrogen dioxide just by using a gas or propane stove at home — and that’s before any outdoor sources of pollution, like traffic, are taken into account. Indeed, the researchers found that cooking fuel is the number one predictor of how much nitrogen dioxide individuals are exposed to in their homes. And nitrogen dioxide pollution doesn’t just stay in the kitchen: it drifts throughout the home, putting at risk family members beyond the kitchen in far-away bedrooms.

The study also showed that this pollution burden is not borne evenly across the population. Low-income households, particularly those living in homes with smaller square footage, are exposed to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide. In the U.S., where race is correlated with wealth and wealth with home size, this means that Indigenous or Alaska Native households are exposed to 60% more nitrogen dioxide over the long term than the national average, and Hispanic and Black households are exposed to 20% more nitrogen dioxide. This correlates to higher asthma rates among Indigenous, Hispanic and Black communities as well.

The new research shows that even something as benign as how one cooks food can perpetuate health disparities. The gas industry knows this and is trying to cover it up. “Cooking with Smoke,” a report published by the Public Health Law Center, which we work for, documents how the gas industry uses the same tactics as the tobacco industry has used to cover up the dangers of their products, including which communities are harmed the most. A favorite and cynical tactic of the gas industry is to position people of color as the face of opposition to health-protective gas regulations. For example, a PR firm affiliated with the industry falsely claimed that the NAACP opposed a proposal to limit gas hookups in San Luis Obispo.

The Science Advances report estimates that the pollution from gas and propane stoves contributes to nearly 200,000 current pediatric asthma cases with a societal cost of at least $1 billion a year. For the families dealing with this disease, the cost is also sleepless nights, emergency room visits, missed school days, and the ongoing fear of not being able to catch your breath.

Like many renters, families living in public housing do not have the luxury to choose, replace, or upgrade their home appliances. They are stuck with what is provided by the local housing authority. Exposure to dangerous-levels of indoor nitrogen dioxide pollution from gas stoves may help explain why adults living in public housing are more likely to have asthma than the rest of the population.

Mounting evidence is slowly but surely leading to much-needed changes in policy. Earlier this month, the California State Assembly passed a bill requiring gas or propane stoves sold in the state come with labels clearly warning consumers about the health risks of the nitrogen dioxide and benzene pollution that come from cooking with gas. A similar bill is being considered in New York State.

When science-based policies make progress, there are always people and organizations trying to maintain the status quo. For example, the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” now working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives, seeks to prevent federal agencies from establishing stronger efficiency or safety standards for gas-burning home appliances, if the stronger standards would result in any appliances being taken off the market. It passed the House largely along party lines. A bill like this would allow manufacturers to continue making and selling wasteful, polluting appliances — products that could likely end up in rental units or public housing.

While mechanical ventilation from stove hoods can help remove nitrogen dioxide and benzene from gas stoves, public-housing apartments are not required to have hoods.

The advocacy group WE ACT for Environmental Justice is leading the way. In a pilot program, the organization installed electric induction stoves in 10 apartments in New York City Housing Authority buildings. By the end of the program, families reported an alleviation of asthma symptoms, and all 10 families opted to keep their induction stoves rather than go back to cooking with gas. Following the initiative’s success, the New York City Housing Authority issued a request for proposals to manufacturers to develop an induction stove that can be plugged into a standard 120-Volt outlet, delivering a major health, safety and energy efficiency upgrade for families at minimal cost. When constructing new housing, building to an all-electric standard is less expensive than installing gas lines, too.

Setting an all-electric standard for public housing would mean that families can cook safely, and other appliances would allow for better temperature control through heat pumps for water, heating, and cooling. Such a standard would save money, improve public health, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Biden administration should make this a basic standard for all public housing.

Esther Agbaje, J.D., is the lead senior staff attorney for the Federal Regulation, Commercial Tobacco Control Program at the Public Health Law Center, where Tonya Curry, J.D., is the senior staff attorney for Climate Justice. The authors worked with Climate Nexus, a communications firm focused on climate change, energy, and water issues, on part of the essay.