Yesterday, Mothers & Others For Clean Air medical education adviser Dr. Anne Mellinger-Birdsong testified at a state house subcommittee hearing about natural gas and indoor air quality. She explained how pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulates that are created when natural gas burns can harm people’s health, from birth through old age.
Here is her testimony, it is useful for everyone to read it:
HB 150 would preempt local governments from making zoning regulations or other ordinances based on the type or source of energy or fuel. HB 150 does not state any reason why this is needed. This bill would prevent local governments from protecting the health of their citizens.
Natural gas is used in some houses for cooking, heating, or for water heaters. Many people are not aware of this, but when natural gas burns, it produces a variety of air pollutants that can damage health. These include particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NO2 and NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and formaldehyde. These pollutants can harm our health, whatever age we are. But they are especially dangerous for children, because children are still growing and 80% of their lungs form AFTER birth.
Homes that have gas stoves have 50% to 400% higher levels of NO2 in the home compared to homes with electric stoves.(2) Baking a cake can create NO2 levels more than twice the EPA standard for outdoor air.
There is strong evidence that nitrogen oxides contribute to both asthma attacks and the development of asthma. It makes children more prone to respiratory infections. It damages children’s lung growth into the teenage years. It can affect their ability to learn. We need to remember that Georgia’s child asthma rate is higher than the national average, so it is good to allow counties and cities to have zoning regulations to protect health.
Children who living in homes with gas stoves have a 42% increased chance of having asthma symptoms, and a 24% increased chance of being diagnosed with asthma.(1)
Particulate air pollution is very damaging to children’s health. It affects their cognitive development and school performance from birth through high school. It damages children’s lung growth. In adults it causes heart disease, lung disease, strokes, diabetes, and dementia and is linked to high blood pressure and obesity. All of these chronic conditions start with exposures in childhood.
Carbon monoxide can be lethal if levels build up inside a home. This can happen with poor ventilation, older poorly maintained stoves, and in small houses or apartments. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen.
In this time of COVID-19, there are many papers that document a link between air pollution, specifically NOx and particulates, with a higher risk of getting COVID-19, and of dying from COVID-19. Gas stoves create both of these air pollutants that are shown to increase risk of developing and dying from COVID-19. Why then would we want to prevent cities and counties from protecting their citizens’ health?
Drs. Landrigan, Frumkin, and Lundberg wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: that “Gas is associated with health and environmental hazards and reduced social welfare at every stage of its life cycle.” (3) From gas appliances to pipelines to fracking, using natural gas harms human health. HB 150 does not have any stated reasoning as to why the bill is needed. It will prevent cities and counties from creating zoning or other ordinances that have better protections for their citizens’ health. We do not prevent cities and counties from having housing regulations to protect people from radon which is known to cause lung cancer, and we should not prevent them from regulating natural gas which harms health by producing indoor air pollution. Therefore I respectfully ask you to vote NO on this bill.
Links to citations:
1. Lin W, et al. Meta-analysis of the effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide and gas cooking on asthma and wheeze in children. International Journal of Epidemiology 2013; 42:1724–1737.
2. Integrated Science Assessment For Oxides Of Nitrogen – Health Criteria (Final Report, July 2008), US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-08/071, 2008, p. 2–38.
3. Landrigan, et al. The False Promise of Natural Gas. N Engl J Med 2020; 382(2):104-107.
Here are some of our previous blogs about how air pollution harms our health:
https://www.mothersandothersforcleanair.org/reducing-air-pollution-saves-lives/
https://www.mothersandothersforcleanair.org/air-pollution-changes-brain-structure-in-children/
https://www.mothersandothersforcleanair.org/health-and-exposure-disparities-for-particulate-air-pollution/
02/09/2021
