New Stanford study about health and environmental risks of gas stoves
Posting this here because I figure it's relevant to cooking and the decisions we make about our food and our health. I was kind of hoping for a gas stove in my new apartment (I'd only ever had gas stoves) despite being a huge environmentalist because I'd always been told you can't get "those good sears" on electric - now that I have an electric stove, I'm here to say that's bullshit, with the right pots and pans, it can do anything a gas stove can, without the risks.
Reading about this study really opened my eyes to how lucky I am to not be stuck with another gas stove. If anyone here has the means to switch to electric but has been on the fence about it, I hope this can help with that decision.
Some highlights from the article:
"A new Stanford-led analysis finds that a single gas cooktop burner on high or a gas oven set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit can raise indoor levels of the carcinogen benzene above those in secondhand tobacco smoke. Benzene also drifts throughout a home and lingers for hours in home air, according to the paper published June 15 in Environmental Science & Technology."
"Previous studies focused on leaks from stoves when they are off, and did not directly measure resulting benzene concentrations. The researchers found gas and propane burners and ovens emitted 10 to 50 times more benzene than electric stoves. Induction cooktops emitted no detectable benzene whatsoever."
"A previous Stanford-led study showed that gas-burning stoves inside U.S. homes leak methane with a climate impact comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars. They also expose users to pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, which can trigger respiratory diseases. A 2013 meta-analysis concluded that children who live in homes with gas stoves had a 42% greater risk of asthma than children living in homes without gas stoves, and a 2022 analysis calculated that 12.7% of childhood asthma in the U.S. is attributable to gas stoves."
On the official app and site, subs that went private completely disappeared from search and subscriptions, even if you're still able to go to the url. I figure the same is true across various apps.
Scraped, but rearranged into a perfectly readable word salad.
This is how I feel, too. I'm leaving my posts and comments up; ironically, I used to habitually purge my profile every year or so because I was worried about IRL people finding me through my activity, but now, I'd prefer to just leave it. Even if I stop being active on Reddit, it's currently one of the best ways to find answers to niche problems; I'd like to keep my stuff accessible for anyone looking for extremely specific answers. I've been fairly private on Reddit, though, so it feels less sentimental and more practical. (Twitter, on the other hand... I never use it, but everything on it is way too sentimental to nuke.)
I will always, always, always recommend anything by Diana Wynne Jones. I re-read Howl's Moving Castle at least once a year and it's always a delight; it's whimsical, it's hilarious, it's got an adorable romance, it's got it all. If you've seen the Ghibli movie adaptation, it's definitely its own take; I would recommend reading the book for a very different, but still lovely experience. I also love Fire and Hemlock by her, although it might be harder to find.
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld is on the cusp of childrens' and teen lit - I read the books when I was in middle school (so ages 11-14) and reread them pretty often as well. They deal with heavier stuff and I always find something new in my rereads; while the books were written with a critique of plastic surgery in mind, they're even more relevant in today's social media landscape. The writing style is fairly simple but the ideas are extremely rich, and the relationships between the characters are just fantastic.
An all-ages one that many people don't realize is a book: The Princess Bride! Actually read it for the first time towards the end of college, and it's really good fun. If you've seen the movie, you know exactly what to expect, but it doesn't take away from the experience at all.