this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026

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Replacing gas stove can help asthmatics as much as some drugs, US experts find (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 days ago by streetfestival@lemmy.ca to c/medicine@lemmy.ca

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A US study has found a 70% drop in hospital admissions and days off from work or school when people with poorly controlled asthma had their gas stove and hob replaced with electric.

Ohio’s publicly owned MetroHealth began the study in December 2024 but funding was terminated early by the incoming Trump administration. It had been designed to investigate if replacing gas cooking improved asthma for 1,200 people living near Cleveland, Ohio.

Prof Ash Sehgal of Case Western Reserve University, the project’s leader, said: “We had completed the project at fewer than 100 households. As a result, over 1,100 households were unable to benefit. We also had to lay off about 20 project staff.”

The team finished the stove replacements that were under way and closed the project, but to the researchers’ surprise, the benefits could be clearly detected even in the scaled-down study of 72 homes.

Sehgal said: “We were surprised when we analysed the results and found a very large effect size. The improvements in asthma symptoms following stove change were similar to – or even greater than – those reported in clinical trials of commonly used asthma medications.”

Air pollution was measured in 44 of the homes. On average, nitrogen dioxide dropped 70%.

Sehgal A, Schuellerman P, Dolata J, et al. Asthma Control Before and After Changing Gas Stoves to Electric Stoves. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, 2026. link

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[–] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social -3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

piss poor science.

No control group.

No accounting for ventilation use.

Independent research (including a 2024 study in Nature and data from Consumer Reports) has shown that while many people do under-utilize hoods, properly functioning, outside-venting range hoods can reduce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels by 50–70%—comparable to the reduction achieved by swapping stoves.

And would it hurt to open a freaking window and get some cross ventilation in the kitchen???

[–] VibeSurgeon@piefed.social 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No need to actively remove NO2 if your stove does not produce the damn poison in the first place.

The future arrived a long time ago and it's called induction.

[+] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social -7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

And no need to remove hundreds of thousands of stove and send them to land fills just because you are too lazy to turn on a fan.

You do realizes that induction stove aren't organically grown in grassy fields. There are heavy industry manufactured items with the accompanying pollution.

If i had a choice in a new home id probably go electric. But I'm not going to pretend that the study wasn't poorly done and that there is no cost to replace these units.

[–] VibeSurgeon@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And no need to remove hundreds of thousands of stove and send them to land fills just because you are too lazy to turn on a fan.

Who said anything about removing stoves in operation? The right policy is to never install another one of these and let them naturally age out of existence as they reach their EOL.

You do realizes that induction stove aren't organically grown in grassy fields. There are heavy industry manufactured items with the accompanying pollution.

Is the implication that gas stoves are not? Or the constant fuel input required to run them?

[+] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social -6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

"Or the constant fuel input required to run them?"

Seriously dude are you even in STEM? On a full grid-to-pot basis the gas and induction land in the same efficiency range, roughly 25-42% efficient, so which one actually wins depends on your local electricity mix rather than the technology itself.

https://www.leafscore.com/eco-friendly-kitchen-products/which-is-more-energy-efficient-gas-electric-or-induction/

And nothing you have said makes the science of the study in question any better.

You degrade the credibility of all science and give fuel to deniers by pushing badly done work into the public eye.

[–] VibeSurgeon@piefed.social 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Seriously dude are you even in STEM?

This is quite possibly the most cringe comment I have ever read.

Did you know that electricity grids can be run on sources not requiring combustion of fuels?

EDIT: holy hell, did you even read your source?

[–] Vegiforous@piefed.ca 4 points 3 days ago

From your source:

Let’s not bury the lede: Research clearly shows that induction cooktops are more energy efficient than other cooking methods.
Gas cooktops are about 40 percent efficient.
Electric-coil and standard smooth-top electric cooktops are about 74 percent efficient.
Induction cooktops are 84 percent efficient.

On top of that, electric stoves run off the electrical grid. While there are places that have inefficient grids, the underlying power grid can be made more efficient by building better infrastructure. Your gas stove runs on gas, it will be shitty until the day you rip out that CO-producing piece of shit.

Talking about the efficiency of gas infrastructure is oil industry propaganda. There is no reason to install new consumer grade equipment outside of the Arctic circle, electrical is more efficient on a dirty grid, and more electrical on the grid encourages production of more green energy sources to improve the grid

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You degrade the credibility of all science and give fuel to deniers by pushing badly done work into the public eye.

You realize the source you're citing relies on affiliate commission for funding? https://www.leafscore.com/about-us/

[–] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social -3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If you don't like my source then site one of your own. The loss factor for electric transmission and generation are well known.

But if you want better sources here is one. "More than 60% of energy used for electricity generation is lost in conversion"

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44436

if the article is showing any bias i'd say it was pro induction. I saw nothing that says funded by the fossil fuel.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

Just for fun, what are the volumetric losses of gas as it is piped to a house?

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Brought to you by the Natural Gas Is Great association.

[–] BurgerBaron@quokk.au 3 points 3 days ago

Hank Hill's alt.

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not every study needs a control group or needs to examine mediators. That would be a great waste of funding.

Before this study, "no intervention studies have examined the impact of changing stoves on asthma control."

Their design was appropriate, and their findings are important and suggest that a more rigorous study would be a good use of funding.

Is your LLM able to provide citations for the study and Consumer Reports publication it included in its output?

[–] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

Some of us actually subscribe to consumer reports. And I read the article when it first came out.

But here it is for you:

https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/indoor-air-quality/is-your-gas-range-a-health-risk-a6971504915/

Also just for the record i don't accept the "Not every study needs a control group". I worked for 30 years as a health physicist attached to the US army's primary standards lab. I reject your assertion that this study should be pushed in the public eye.

The people commenting in this thread seem more about pushing and agenda rather than evaluating a study.