An early achievement of mankind was developing the ability to start fires at will and control fires to aid in staying warm, keeping predators away, and cooking. I am not sure the order in which this all happened, but I am guessing that keeping warm was the first use of fire. Cooking, and I am only speculating, was probably later in coming. I am pretty sure of one thing and that is, from the get-go, man had to deal with the smoke that comes with wood and brush fueled fires. I would imagine our ancestors learned very quickly where to sit relative to the breeze or wind direction to get the benefit of the glow and warmth with being overcome by the smoke.
As man evolved and developed, we created shelters be they tents, lodges, cabins, and eventually homes. We brought fire into these dwellings and very quickly learned that holes or vents were needed to rise and escape the dwelling lest the smoke overwhelm everyone. This is why tents had holes in the top, this is why hearths with chimneys were developed. We wanted all the benefits of indoor fires with none of the smoke.
Any fire has some kind of emissions. A fire is a chemical reaction, the fuel, be it wood, coal, wax, liquids, and gases are consumed by the and transformed into residues that can be solids, liquids, or gases. This is true whether we see or smell the emissions. Natural gas is a favored fuel for heating homes and cooking. When burned it has no odor. It is odorless before it is burned and we have added a unique fragrance just so we can smell leaks. But, because it burns odorless, there are still emissions. In our homes, we have gas furnaces, gas water heaters, and gas ranges and ovens.
The furnaces and water heaters all vent the emission via chimneys but our ranges do not. Recently, there a study was published that showed natural gas emissions, the colorless and odorless smoke, contains chemicals we might want to consider worrying about. From the PSE: Bringing science to energy policy we see the following results:
- Natural gas stoves emit up to 1.3 percent of the gas they use as unburned methane, notably with over three-quarters of methane emissions occurring when a stove is turned off.
- Emissions of health-damaging air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, were found to be directly related to the use of the gas stove.
- Over the course of one year, leaks from gas stoves in the U.S. have a climate impact comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from roughly 500,000 passenger vehicles.
- Simply igniting a burner releases the same amount of methane gas that would be expected during 10 minutes of burner use.
- In
homes with poor ventilation, small kitchens, or without the use of range
hoods, using the cooktop or oven can cause concentrations of nitrogen
dioxide to surpass the EPA’s outdoor guidelines for one-hour exposure
within several minutes. There are currently no indoor air quality
standards.
When these results came to light, there was talk about enacting regulations to either ban gas stoves or to ensure proper ventilation. A lot of people freaked out at the prospect of having to give up their gas ranges. Of course, it was a lot of hoopla. The story died down as quickly as it flared up. At this point, it is all but forgotten.
There was no way we were ever going to ban gas stoves overnight. It would simply have been too costly and put undo financial burden on households for a risk that we have been living with for decades.
We probably need indoor air quality standards. Why not? But, it is better to have a plan than a knee jerk reaction. We need a plan and to be phased in over time and assure that the “fixes” are economical and effective.
No comments:
Post a Comment