By Russ and Tiña De Maris
“Your gas stove could be hurting everyone around you,” shouts the headline from a recent issue of Popular Science. The subtitle, “A new report has found that stoves are constantly emitting fumes—warming the planet and endangering your health.” Is your RV stove a guilty party?
Kitchen stoves and “climate impact”
The Popular Science article trots out information from a recent report from Stanford University. The research says kitchen stoves are “constantly emitting methane” that has “a climate impact comparable to adding a half a million gas-powered cars to the roads.” It doesn’t matter, say researchers, whether the stove is actively cooking something, or not. “We found that over three-quarters of the methane emissions from stoves are emitted while the stove is off,” said Eric Lebel, the lead author of the study. “So these little tiny leaks from the stoves, they really do add up.”
Is your RV stove, while looking shiny and innocent, really adding to global warming? In a word, “No.” While there are concerns that RVers need to address in terms of safety, your RV kitchen appliance is not contributing in any great way to global warming. Does this fly in the face of the Stanford study?
What’s that gas?
What needs to be taken into account is the type of gas burned in the majority of American “sticks and bricks” kitchens. When Grandma pops the turkey dinner into that great big oven, she’s pretty likely cooking with natural gas. When you putt down the road in your motorhome or trailer, you can be sure your source of cooking fuel is propane—not natural gas. There’s a big difference where the environment is concerned.
Natural gas is a byproduct of oil drilling. Initially, natural gas was seen as a bothersome “waste product,” until clever marketers found a way to use and sell it. Natural gas is made up of 70 to 90 percent methane, which many point to as a potent greenhouse gas. On the other hand, propane is actually extracted from natural gas. How much methane is in “LP” or propane? Not more than 1.6%. So the worries of warming up the atmosphere from whipping up dinner on your RV stove are basically non-existent.
But on the other hand
That doesn’t mean that cooking with gas is a completely harmless affair. There are other byproducts of gas, LP or natural, that can cause problems. Both propane and natural gas put off nitrogen oxide, in roughly the same amounts per amount of heating power. The American Lung Association warns, “Nitrogen dioxide causes a range of harmful effects on the lungs, including: Increased inflammation of the airways; worsened cough and wheezing; reduced lung function; increased asthma attacks; and greater likelihood of emergency department and hospital admissions.”
With those problems in mind, who in their right mind would cook with gas? The right-minded RVer who simply reaches up and turns the switch. The switch? Yes, the range hood switch. By ventilating the kitchen, harmful nitrogen dioxide is pulled away from your RV stove and out of the rig. Interestingly, this same ventilation can remove other harmful byproducts associated with cooking, regardless of whether that stove is gas or electric.
In a perfect world, we could look forward to no harm to health, no harm to the environment. The perfect world has yet to arrive. The ability to safely transport and use a heating fuel with relative health and environmental safety at this point still looks to be in the propane gas corner. Just use it wisely.
Other stories by Russ and Tiña De Maris
##RVT1038
First, we must send all the ruminants to slaughter, as they (grazing cattle, for instance) emit huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere. Second, we must eliminate all beans from the human diet, for the same reason. Then make copies of this article and run screaming throughout the village with hysterical abandon. Meanwhile, as a far greater, real threat, warming temperatures in the far northern permafrost regions are releasing huge amounts of frozen methane; and warming sea temperatures in the northern seas are releasing methane “bombs” that were frozen and resting in the silt deposits.
So… gas stoves are the threat? Wow!
Please run screaming through the village naked. At least it will be good for a laugh!
No I didn’t mean you! I meant the panic villagers…
No old men, that would be cruel and unusual punishment!
Why don’t we just stop living!
Shh, a certain political party is working hard in that very direction, dont encourage those clowns anymore.
What I understand is that many RVs don’t actually have the stove fan venting directly outside. Our travel trailer did because we had flaps that snapped closed over it for travel. But our fifth wheel does not. The vent just filters the air through.
Sure evidence that Covid is losing it’s appeal as the fear d’jour,
Well put, John.
I am heartened and relieved to read all these comments. It gives me hope that not everyone believes the ‘stuff’ shoved down our throats by ‘scientific’ journals (Popular Science, and even Popular Mechanics!). Thank you all, Rv’ers with common sense.
Tommy, you are close to my age (76) with all the various things they are saying are going to kill you it makes me wonder how we ever got to be so old without dying. Remember when almost every food we were eating was proven to be cancer causing (think cranberries). Growing up in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and such our diet should have killed a whole generation. Now it is global warming that is going to be our demise. I think I will set this one out. Never trust someone whose paycheck is reliant on finding supporting evidence for the cause (such as global warming). By the way I still eat cranberries on a regular basis.
Russ, Tina,
2 key pieces of information would be helpful.
How much nitrogen dioxide does an RVstove burner put off per unit of time?
At what level (ppm) of nitrogen dioxide in the air does the American Lung Association deem it to be harmful?
This article is such a joke, I know of a building that is heated with natural gas flowing directly out of the ground. What byproduct is that from oil drilling. Oh and propane is ok even if it comes from natural gas.
People who want oil and all types of gas eliminated are completely disregarding the fact that mining for the battery components has a huge impact on the environment. They further disregard the question of what will become of those batteries and solar panels when they die (they don’t last forever). They will go into landfills and leak into the ground. We had a coming global ice age hysteria back in the 70s and 80s, then a coming global warming hysteria in the 90s and early 2000s. Since NONE of their predicted disasters came true, they changed it to climate change doom. Research for yourself and see what they were predicting back then. By their predictions we should all be dead now. Wake up people. This is another money laundering operation by the powers that be to funnel money to themselves and foreign governments at our expense. Further, mandating all electric will crush many Americans as they can’t afford to make the change. But those making these decisions won’t have any problem.
IMHO they should check the birthdate of all the people writing this trash because it’s probably millennials, and we know they’re all educated far beyond their intelligence level.
I couldn’t agree more. A whole generation saving the world by changing everything they can, mostly based on theories, algorithms, and of course opinions.
Right, and we should probably shut down all of our natural gas house heaters, and then all freeze to death over the winter, then there would be less humans destroying the climate. Or, maybe we should all switch to electric heaters, electric cars and electric RV’s, and electric cooking. Then all the needed extra electricity can be produced by burning more natural gas at the power plants! It certainly won’t come from solar fields that don’t produce at night or are inefficient when it’s cloudy or they are covered with snow. And then there’s the windmills that don’t turn when they are froze up or there isn’t enough wind, or they have to be stopped when it’s too windy. Maybe we should burn more coal to supplement for all the extra electricity needed.
Ever notice how many acres of beautiful farmland are consumed by all these solar fields? Instead we now need to import much of our food via diesel burning trucks and ships burning heavy oil, and cargo planes burning jet fuel.
Oregon and Washington are trying to stop the installation on natural gas appliances in new home construction now.
Stupid.
Vote those clowns out of office.
And, one more thing: As the American Farmland Trust says “No Farms No Food”. Right, let’s just keep giving up more farmland for solar fields, so we can become more dependent on countries adding new coal burning plants each year.
Thank goodness, China HAS TO import food to feed its billion + population. In addition, those clowns have polluted so much of their farm land, that they are now decending on Africa.
So, yeah they manufacture a large percentage of goods, but if youre hungry, nothing else matters.
Oh wait. Where is the proof there are tiny leaks???
The original study was a joke!
Relating it to RV’s is pretty thin. Everyone knows we just use the oven for storage!
And how dare you vent your toxins outside of your house with a fan! You are as bad as a litterer!
And how come the climate advocates don’t seem to care about all of the birds being killed by the windmills, some of which may be endangered species.
Fact, they had to “up” the allowed limit of Bald Eagles put through meat grinders, aka useless windmills. Justification is their salvation, economic collapse is the reality.
Another Liberal college “Study”! They do know how to insert all the proper “Talking Points” to force an Agenda on Industries and humanity… (Cant use Mankind) Wouldnt want to offend anyone…
Too late.
And still one more thing: Now everything will need to use batteries to store electricity. All these new lithium batteries and other rare earth batteries will make us more dependent on China, while our administration makes it more and more difficult for the USA to be self sufficient in fossil fuels and rare earth materials, most of which have to be mined. And, where do you dispose of all these batteries when they no longer charge efficiently and have to be disposed of.
I know, i know, I’m raising my hand, pick me, pick me. Answer; Landfills across America!
How did this article become political? Can’t you discuss an issue without become vitriolic? It’s a damn shame.
You must be living under a rock. This article IS political in every sense. If the facts backed it up, they would use them.
Awesome article. File this under useless studies paid for by taxpayer dollars.
No seriously, hats off to the forum for finding and putting these types of articles up for comment. The comments are whats of value, not the idiot sons spewing such nonsense.
In reading stuff like this, it gives you perspective on just how wacked certain tree hugger group truely are. I read it as comical prose, where idiots, who we fund through taxpayer dollars, are allowed to just waste resources, and then try and sell the goblygoop.
I was thinking the same thing. I really like this RV community and the sane information they share.
1st. Our rv is all electric, induction cooktop. Second if you are stupid enough to believe the climate BS, I have a bridge to sell you.
Last week mother sun erupted in the largest sunspot this active cycle, flooding the earth with radiation, that is going to hurt you more than the pollution from energy.
I urge you, if you believe this crap, sell all your stoves/grills etc., and cook with wood, oh wait, wood smoke has hundreds of harmful by-products in it too.
WAIT-Have you considered that the earth is in constant change and has been since it was created or formed. It’s not static, its constantly changing, plates moving under or over each other volcanos going off (highest number currently erupting in recorded history), which trust me puts more harmful stuff into air, than humans will ever do.
They say that pulling oil out of the ground causes voids in the earth that in turn allows the plates to shift and Earth quakes to happen. Whole mountains have fallen in Iran. Great waves have destroyed Japan and the gulf coast has attracted Hurricanes all things that have been blamed on removing oil from under the crust of the Earth. These and other things have been claimed. Is it imaginary. Is there some truth to it I don’t know. How do we info things that are claimed to be damage. Are we expected to revert to cave man life huddling in caves to keep warm and congregating in cool under ground caverns to get out of the heat.
My guess is Stanford is looking for some more federal grant money to further study the problem. I have a suggestion for Stanford. They should use their intellect to compare the amount of methane released by NG stoves to people’s farts. I would love to read about that one. Such a study would certainly exceed the intellectual level set by our government for federal funding.
I was about to say the same, NG is emitted by all living things present, past and future. No way to eliminate it, a waste of taxpayer money for sure.
george carlin did a skit on cow farts
You’re worried about the stove when you just burned 30 to 100 gallons of gas or diesel to get your RV to the spot to turn on your stove? To all the people saying electric RV’s here’s a dose of reality. There’s no way as of yet to recycle Lithium batteries, Solar panels or Wind generator turbines they mostly go to landfills. So as it is in life pick your poison.
I’m extremely skeptical of a report from a university that uses the terms Nitrogen oxide (NO) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) interchangeably.
I wonder what they heat their building with at Stanford. I suspect there is a leak…
The sky is falling!!
Just as it has come out that the four leading scientists who declared Covid-19 started at the Chinese food market, and not created in the Wuhan lab saw their government grants skyrocket tenfold, any reporting by the scientific community is suspect. Since WWII and the Manhatten Project, the scientific community is controlled by the government called grants.
Most modern household stoves/ranges are dual fuel so you have a more evenly cooked turkey on Thanksgiving. Also, convection (fan) ovens have become popular for reduced cooking time.
In a world where roughly half of electrical generation is produced through the burning of coal and natural gas, and given the amount of electricity generated, in raw energy terms, is ALWAYS less than the amount of energy used to produce it, I don’t give my propane burning appliances a second thought. Nor my natural gas burning ones, for that matter.
Just a point of interest… Did you know that Living is hazardous to your health !!!
Exactly.
Ha! Global warming is a fad. Back in the 70’s it was global cooling. That is why they now call it “climate change.” They figured out that the climate changes all the time. So why not cash in on it? Breathing is bad for the climate. Too much carbon dioxide!
I would like to see a study of the effect of eliminating the use of all fossil fuel. I think the result would most large cities untenable, cause wide spread starvation, and death from the heat and cold. All the resulting consequences are much worse than anything we’re experiencing now.
Too many nuts in this world today. If we worried about everything that wasn’t good for us we’d be dead a long time ago. The trouble is our politicians listen to these nuts and make our life miserable. Electric cars is a prime example
About electric cars , How many electric will be sitting along the high ways that forgot to fill up with electric?
I will use my propane powered stove, fridge, water heater, fire ring, BBQ, generator, soldering torch and anything else without even a smidgeon of guilt.
Articles such as Stanford’s should be viewed as;
What is the agenda? Promoting the author? Filling space in the publication? Being sensational to get noticed? Making your quota of articles/words per month?
Given the current lack of journalistic integrity… Everywhere, accepting writings without extensive further research is foolhardy.
They never mention the natural occurrences that are constantly happening. Like the recent volcano that blew up in Tonga or the one in central America that’s been blowing for a couple years, spewing harmful ( but natural) gases into the atmosphere. Give us a break
Thomas, thats not an issue because govt cant regulate a volcano, so its never mentioned as a major polutant.
We control what we can control. Averaged out, volcanos will always produce x amount of emissions. That doesn’t excuse us to consistently add a whole bunch more to that baseline.
Who is “us”. I suggest you get on the soapbox again Eric, and clarify. Surely you dont mean this country, for if you do, you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Its getting old with those who dont say exactly who the planet menaces are. What are you all afraid of?
Give it another shot, Eric.
Realize that some California counties/cities only permit new construction using electricity for cooking and HVAC with New York attempting to follow suit. No gas service of any type will be permitted to be installed.
Fuel powered generators and small engine operated equipment are also on the prohibited list.
Right, wrong or otherwise, prohibitions on the use of fossil type fuels are coming to a neighborhood near you.
Might want to group up and convince the politicians they have erred.
Or not.
Probably more dangerous omissions after eating a plate of pinto beans.😂
Just a thought- Can we discuss the problem and come to a common sense approach to solving it without unpleasant name calling.
Nope, nothing works that way anymore.
Another Stanford politically driven study. Seriously they are getting predictable and boring. If we do it their way we all eat raw uncooked food, live in unheated houses, never wash except when it rains and give all our money to the government so they can fund these agenda driven studies. This is the same genius that brought us the electric car that in it’s production pollutes and strips the earth more than any fuels driven vehicle. We can’t figure how to recycle the batteries from them, spend all kinds of carbon credits boosting the energy outputs of the plants and stressing the electrical grids to charge them. All this for a group of elites that can afford them. Time to get back to regulating cow farts. Then we can make use of the BS.
Looks like Russ triggered a bundle of pent-up discontent. I read the Stanford report and was very happy to find Mr. De Maris’ excellent follow-up article. He filled the voids and clarified the key differences between LP gas and propane. I follow the science and it’s telling us that our dear Mother Earth is in dire need of help. It’s clear that serious changes have to be made in the ways we do things. But change doesn’t come easy and isn’t always popular with the masses. We can bad-mouth our elected leaders and newsletter readers over our differences of opinion, or we can take those fights to more appropriate arenas and thank Mr. De Maris for his informative article. Thanks Russ.