this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
47 points (98.0% liked)

Aotearoa / New Zealand

2001 readers
12 users here now

Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general

Rules:

FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom

 

Banner image by Bernard Spragg

Got an idea for next month's banner?

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dave@lemmy.nz
RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz
47
Wood burning and gas cooking hugely costly to healthcare systems, New Zealand study finds (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 4 days ago by hanrahan@slrpnk.net to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Indoor air pollution from New Zealand’s 523,000 wood burners was estimated to account for 446 hospital admissions for heart and lung problems, and 101 early deaths annually, in a country with a population of just over 5 million people. Breathing fumes from gas cooking indoors created more than 1,000 hospital admissions, 208 early deaths and more than 3,000 new cases of childhood asthma each year.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

The prevalence of gas burning stoves in the U.S is caused by a long-running propaganda campaign from the gas industry. If you convince someone that cooking on a gas stove is inherently better than using alternatives, then you will make sure that they install gas lines into their building, making it likely that they will use that gas for heating, which is where the majority of gas consumption will happen.

Once the health effects of burning stuff inside your home on the regular were getting studied and action was close to being taken, more money was given to the right wing politicians, who are never reluctant to jump on any culture war topic, meaning that using gas stoves was now a virtue signal for right wingers.