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The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted this week to seek public input on the dangers of gas stoves, a potential first step toward implementing certain safety standards or other regulations governing their use.
The agency said it has no regulations or bans in the works, but such a Request For Information – from appliance and energy industries, scientists and the medical professions, plus the public at large – is a federal agency’s initial step on the road to potentially imposing new rules.
“The chronic hazards that can arise from toxic emissions should be studied, and that is what we are doing with this RFI,” CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric said, adding that any regulatory action would require a vote by the full commission, “which has not expressed support for any regulation.”
Gas stoves, which are used in 40% of U.S. homes, emit certain air pollutants at levels considered unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization.
The American Gas Association has said research does not prove gas stoves increase the likelihood of childhood asthma, and that keeping natural gas in a mixed U.S. energy portfolio helps lower costs for consumers.
Nearly 100 U.S. cities and counties already have adopted policies either restricting their use or to begin phasing them out in new construction.
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Earlier this year, CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka floated the idea of a potential ban on gas stoves, prompting sharp criticism that forced the Biden administration to disavow the idea.