Meta-Analysis of Over 100 Studies Shows Gas Stoves Pose No Increased Risks of Asthma
It turns out, pushing unrealistic green energy schemes onto low- and middle-income people at the expense of a safer fuel source was not only bad science, it was dangerous propaganda.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that in 2023, the Biden administration seriously considered a nationwide ban on gas stoves, blaming “pollutants” released by the appliances.
One of the studies cited was published in Scientific American. We documented the narrative science and agenda-driven conclusions that the publication offers.
The “study” involved 53 households, all in California. As I reported at that time, the findings that asserted gas stoves contributed to increased risk of asthma were based on bad science.
Now, a review of the data from 116 separate studies that was recently published in The Lancet and funded by the World Health Organization shows that heating and cooking with natural gas stoves is not associated with asthma in children or adults.
The study conducted an extensive meta-analysis and examined the health risks of cooking or heating with natural gas compared to other fuels and electricity. It found no significant association between natural gas and asthma, wheeze, cough or breathlessness, and a lower risk of bronchitis when compared to electricity. When compared to other household fuels including kerosene and solid fuels, natural gas was associated with a lower risk of several health conditions.
The study’s conclusion that there is no association between the use of natural gas and asthma contradicts prior claims of population incidence of asthma attributable to gas, which are only valid where a causal relationship exists.
In fact, the Lancet study (Estimated health effects from domestic use of gaseous fuels for cooking and heating in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analyses) shows that the use of gas stoves has a very positive effect on human health, as follows:
- Pneumonia: 46% risk reduction.
- Wheeze: 58% risk reduction.
- Cough: 56% risk reduction.
- Breathlessness, COPD, Other Adverse Respiratory Impacts: Substantial risk reductions.
- Preterm Birth and Low Birth Weight: Significant reduction in risk.
It’s important to note that when natural gas burns, it mainly produces carbon dioxide (CO₂, a life-essential gas) and water vapor, with smaller amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), carbon monoxide (CO), and very little particulate matter. In contrast, coal and kerosene are more complex fuels. For example, burning coal releases high amounts of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides, mercury, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, all of which are linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Therefore, pushing unrealistic green energy schemes onto low- and middle-income (LMIC) people at the expense of a safer fuel source was not only bad science, it was dangerous propaganda.
This study shows a lower risk for key health outcomes when switching from polluting solid fuels and kerosene to use of clean gaseous fuels for cooking or heating. Our study also identifies a modest increase in risk from use of gaseous fuels compared with electricity for a few health outcomes, including acute lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (although not statistically significant when focusing on evidence from higher-quality studies).
For LMICs reliant on polluting solid fuels and kerosene, transitions to gaseous fuels for cooking or heating can potentially produce substantial health benefits.
The risk of asthma associated with gas cooking was often inflated in prior studies that failed to adjust adequately for other factors (e.g., smoking, area air pollution). The Lancet meta-analysis showed that with proper adjustment for possible contributing factors, any association between gas use and child asthma was not statistically meaningful.
Remember when researchers claimed gas stoves were responsible for 1-in-8 asthma cases in the U.S.?
That didn’t hold up.
The meta-analysis was done incorrectly, and correcting it rendered its result nonsignificant.
Then, a very large, well-done study found no risk elevation. pic.twitter.com/fltmNZhSgF
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) August 4, 2025
What are the chances the elite media will give the new Lancet publication the same about of attention it gave the bogus study?
Here is the answer: pic.twitter.com/e6SFTsSXjG
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) August 5, 2025
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Comments
How many people knew this the first minute they heard about this. Science is dead or at least it is in many ways.
Science isn’t dead, it’s been hijacked by the left.
yeah but they lead to something more dangerous
american citizens having freedoms that a lefty government cannot control
Where is my shocked face?
I appear to have worn it out.
I get mine at Harbor Freight.
They still wear out, but they’re much cheaper to replace.
And yet:
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved a rule banning the sale of new natural gas furnaces and water heaters beginning in 2030.
Meanwhile, Stricter Building Codes Discouraging Gas in New Construction (Effective 2026)
•The California Energy Commission updated its building code in 2022, requiring new homes to be equipped for all‑electric appliances.
That assumes a) that California will not have collapsed by 2030, and b) that they have any electricity to use since they already have to import from other states during peak demand, And there is no way that they are going to allow anything to be built that generates electricity or even have time to [ since the permitting process alone can take a decade easily ]. This is one of those “Oh Well” things we can watch with amusement
Not our problem.
Subotai Bahadur
In the SF Bay Area this has been accelerated to 2027, IOW a little over a year from now. As a result we are going to replace our water heater soon before we can’t. It’s still working pretty well but is old (> 20 years).
There is no such thing as bad science. It is, by definition, not science to begin with.
Correct, but there is such a thing as bad scientists.
Any “pollutants” in a house using gas or electric come from what is being cooked.
I have a AirVisual Pro air quality monitor that tracks CO2 and pollutant particle count. When we boil potatoes the CO2 which is normally in the 500 to 600 ppm with the windows closed will go up to about 700 ppm. The particle count is usually between 10 and 20.
When we cook any fried foods the the particle count will go up into the red zone which is over 150. The worst I have ever seen it is over 1000 and that was from burned toast in an electric toaster.
This. When they talk about “particulate pollution” from home stoves, what they’re actually talking about are the smells of home cooking. They’re literally coming after Mom’s apple pie.
Let’s face it, this wasn’t about the safety of the fuel source it was about control. If you have natural gas, you’re harder to control because it’s way easier to just shut off the electricity and control everybody at once. And God forbid that you have some kind of contained storage on premises that they can’t turn off at all.
There’s another advantage to natural gas. We cook with gas. Our 98% gas fired furnace uses so little electricity that I can run it and the refrigerator and the TV system and lots of LED lamps using my little 2.2 Kw gasoline fired generator and still not load the generator anywhere near its maximum (I’ve loaded it up to 1.5 Kw in a trial run). If the power quits in the middle of the winter we’re nice and warm. I can run the microwave temporarily by itself so we can cook with it, too. The chest freezer will stay cold a long time. I keep gasoline cans full and rotate them by dumping the year-old fuel into the car and go buy new every autumn. Of course, the generator gets test run every other month.
Sorry for you, California. Well, maybe just a teentsy bit.
.
household fuels including … solid fuels
You know what those are, right? Yes, wood. But also peat and poo.
Gee, refined natural gas is better for you than burning feces. Imagine that.
I said at the time that if there were more “pollutants” it was likely due to broken stoves that didn’t burn the gas completely. It looks like they weren’t even being shady about that, they were just wrong (or lying – yeah, I know).
But feces is all natural, so it must be safe!
How organic can you get?
I hate these greenies. Any official pushed this “settled science” should be forced, absolutely forced, to live by it. All of it. Start with the frauds Al Bore, John Francois Kerry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheldon WhiteHouse, and Grusome.
I bet Grusome’s favorite restaurant, the $2k/meal French Laundry in wine country uses gas stoves. Wanna bet they’ll get an exemption lol.
considered a nationwide ban on gas stoves
But they told you that wasn’t what they were doing. It was all over the papers. “We’re not banning gas stoves!” I mean, who you gonna believe, right?
They were just going to ban NEW gas stoves. See? That’s all the difference in the world right there.
I wish all my apartment buildings had electric stoves. My tenants are not good with gas stoves. One family’s toddler turned the stove knob on and flooded his apartment with gas. All hell broke loose. One dude insisted on cleaning behind his stove and just yanked the gas hose out of the wall. When I got there, gas was pouring through the broken hose and he’s smoking a cigarette. My point is, asthma aside, these people are just too stupid to deal with something so dangerous. And, yes, they are getting dumber and dumber. I don’t know if it’s demographics or single moms or computers or whatever but Americans are getting seriously stupid.
As a property owner, it is your personal responsibility to react to what you perceive to be a threat to tenant safety. Insofar that the problem lies with the stupidity of the tenants (and not a safety problem with the installed appliances per se), how or if you respond is up to you; the government should have no role.
What we’re looking at in the “gas stove” situation is a confluence of government overreach, the nanny state, misinformed ecological considerations, and a desire to control. A perfect storm.
Social promotion breeds social explosion.
“when natural gas burns, it mainly produces carbon dioxide… burning coal releases high amounts of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides, mercury, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons…”
Yah, but dat’s somewhere way over else.
Gaslighting scumbags who push lies like this need to have their faces broken. Until they start paying a price for their lies, the gaslighting will continue.
Who cares even if it does. Irrelevant. The choice of what if anything to cook with on your property is No one else’s business EVER especially a government.
“What about my asthma?”
“I’ll give you asthma!”
Judge Smails, Caddyshack