Hang on to your gas stove (Photo –
slworking2)
The feds and some states have recently launched high profile campaigns to replace all gas stoves with “safer” electric stoves.
By Thom Hawkins
Of course, breathing gas fumes is not good for you, so don’t use a leaky or unventilated gas stove. But officials are not telling you that some studies have shown it is not healthy to be irradiated by a powerful electromagnetic field (EMF). How powerful? That is controversial, but you can decide for yourself. Start by reading Ann Louise Gittleman’s book, “Zapped” (2011).
In the sixties, the building industry stopped providing outside vents over stoves in new construction as they had been doing for about a century. They claimed that there is no danger to your health from breathing gas fumes. Wrong! Science is finally getting around to telling us how dangerous it really is. “Ventilate. Ventilate. Ventilate.”
Hang on to your gas stove, but make sure it’s vented to the outdoors. If you’re concerned about leaks at the connections, spray them with a solution of dish soap and water. Look for bubbles sprouting from a connection, tighten with wrench or pliers, or put in a new connection.
Most professional chefs prefer gas. Induction tops and electric burners can be unhealthy if you get too close. If you don’t believe that, measure the electromagnetic field around a hot electric burner with an EMF (Gauss) meter and then avoid working in that ”hot” field.
Standard guidelines for safe exposure are no more than 2 to 3 mG, though studies have found biological effects at far below that, particularly in children. Use the Gauss meter to measure the field around your appliances until it reads 1 mG or less, which is what most EMF experts now believe is relatively safe.
~ Gittleman, p. 84
Oh, and while you’ve got your meter out, measure the EMF of your electric car, cell phone, refrigerator, AC, and fuse box. Then go outside and measure the EMF of a tree and decide which you want to be closest to. Let the Precautionary Principle be your guide and consider the cumulative health effects of your total toxic load in our toxic civilization.
Natural gas can be extracted from the ground without releasing oil, and methane is available from landfills and stockyards. Natural gas will likely run out in a few decades, but methane will always be available. Both have a lower carbon content than oil, yet still overheat the climate in the short term. That would be less of a problem if we stopped burning oil and coal. Electricity is not always clean. It depends on the source. Natural gas and coal are still being used to generate electricity.