News Miner 67
Gas stoves, click bait, benzene, wilderness, Native American exhibit, bigoted GOP, Communists, YIMBYs, and more.
Gas Stoves Get the Click-Bait Treatment
Complete Colorado published my recent column, “Reading past Colorado news media’s gas stove click bait.” The claim in the news media was that cooking with a gas stove is as bad as or worse than living with a smoker. Here are some excerpts from my piece:
We can look to the full study for additional details. . . . Here is the actual, highly qualified comparison to smoking from the study: “In 9 of the 33 cases (29%), a single gas burner on high or an oven set to 350° F raised kitchen benzene concentrations above the upper range of indoor benzene concentrations attributable to secondhand tobacco smoke (0.34−0.78 ppbv [parts per billion by volume]).” . . .
To me, here is the most remarkable thing about the study: In almost all cases, its organizers intentionally turned off available ventilation so as to maximize benzene accumulation. “We kept the range hood (a potential sink) off if one was present,” the study says.
In two whole houses, the study organizers did turn on the vent hoods. In one of those houses, even with the hood on, “benzene concentrations exceeded” California standards of 0.94 parts per billion. However, if you refer to supplementary figure S2, you’ll find that the hood did nevertheless substantially reduce benzene levels. Obviously more-powerful ventilation displaces more air. In the other house, the hood didn’t seem to have much effect—but benzene levels never surpassed the California bar whether the hood was on or off. . . .
Here is another remarkable fact, via supplementary figure S10: Benzene emissions varied radically by cooking unit, from close to zero to over 70 micrograms per minute. Even within the same brand, emissions could vary widely. A related detail: The study covered both natural gas and propane stoves, even though propane tends to emit more benzene.
Read the entire piece.
Benzene Pollution in Context
The study on benzene and gas stoves offers some really interesting (and disturbing) background on benzene pollution (with end notes removed):
It is useful to compare other benzene sources to the benzene emissions that we observed attributable to combustion from gas stoves. With stricter emission control measures, benzene concentrations have fallen in many parts of the world over recent decades. For instance, average outdoor benzene concentrations in California fell from 2.5 ppbv in 1990 to 0.3 ppbv in 2012. The indoor benzene concentrations that we measured resulting from combustion by gas stoves are thus substantial relative to ambient concentrations in many parts of the world, especially Europe and the Americas. Unfortunately, however, high benzene concentrations persist in other parts of the world; throughout the 2000s and2010s, benzene concentrations exceeding 10 ppbv were often measured in several East and South Asian cities, and concentrations exceeding 100 ppbv have been reported in Mumbai, India. In places with extremely high benzene pollution, other larger benzene sources (such as from burning solid fuels) may be more important than pollution from gas stoves.
An obvious point here: cooking with natural gas or even with propane is a huge improvement, in terms of air quality, over burning wood, coal, dung, and the like.
Natelson on Wilderness Lands
In a recent column, I wrote:
Most people, especially progressives, think it is perfectly obvious that government, especially the federal government, should control most wilderness areas. . . . Not everyone agrees with that, however. Some more-traditional constitutional conservatives, including former law professor Rob Natelson, see widespread federal ownership of lands as contrary to enumerated powers. “The Founding-Era records disclose a universal belief that most federal lands would be sold promptly,” Natelson writes in his book The Original Constitution; “Most of the Founders would have seen permanent federal land ownership for unenumerated purposes as subversive of the constitutional scheme.”
Natelson emailed some additional comments about this and granted permission for me to publish them:
I should clarify that I do not necessarily favor the disposition for all public land—in other words, in many cases it may be best for the state or local governments to own parks and preserves rather than conveying them to private entities. However, the Constitution gives the federal government no enumerated power to own parks and preserves, so my conclusions as to federal land were driven by constitutional meaning, not by personal preference.
Although the federal government has an obligation to dispose of land not needed to execute its enumerated powers, contrary to the view of some it is not obligated to merely sell the land or convey it to the state governments. Rather, the federal government's trust obligation is to dispose of land in the public interest. In the case of all or most of the national parks, that means conveying them to an entity that will assure their permanent preservation.
This is the normal state of affairs in Britain: Property that the public wishes to preserve is conveyed to permanent private trusts. The terms of the trust instrument require preservation and impose other obligations on ownership. Such instruments are enforced by the courts, which also have the flexibility (under the cy pres doctrine) to conform the instrument to changed conditions. As additional security, the federal government could make the conveyance subject to land covenants that both require preservation and determine other terms of ownership.
Quick Takes
Nature Museum: City Cast Denver discussed the Denver Museum of Nature and Science taking out (with the aim of eventually replacing) its Native American exhibit. This offers good context. See also my column from May on the topic.
Bigoted GOP: The Colorado Republican Party continues to smear LGBTQ people. Kyle Clark has more on the insanity of the party.
Social Studies: Logan Davis does not like the conservative social studies standards adopted by Woodland Park. Davis convinces me that the standards in question have serious problems, as with whitewashing imperialism. He does not convince me that the standards have any practical relevance to in-class instruction. But, as I always say, it’s so weird how government-run schools become so political.
Boycott of Anti-Gay Shop: Denver Communists are boycotting and protesting a coffee shop owned by an anti-gay church. So long as the protesters do not threaten, harm, or physically intimidate store personnel or customers, they are within their rights. I’m not sure the boycott is well-chosen; the church that owns the shop is explicitly anti-gay in its messaging, but it does not discriminate against gay people so far as I can tell, and it does good works. Thankfully our only choices are not between the religious bigots and the Communists!
YIMBY: Newsline has a story about the YIMBY Denver event that I mentioned last time. A key line: “Drew Nesmith, a legislative aide for state Rep. Steve Woodrow, a Denver Democrat, said at the event that Woodrow spoke with Democratic Gov. Jared Polis about approaching land use next year through a legislative package as opposed to one large bill.” Here’s another photo of the event, this one of Ryan Keeney of YIMBY Denver.