<
https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/when-the-natural-gas-industry-used-the-playbook-from-big-tobacco/>
"In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author, and television personality Julia Child
returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show,
Julia Child &
Company, following her hit series
The French Chef. Viewers probably didn’t
know that Child’s new and improved kitchen studio, outfitted with gas stoves,
was paid for by the American Gas Association.
While this may seem like any corporate sponsorship, we now know it was a part
of a calculated campaign by gas industry executives to increase the use of gas
stoves across the United States. And stoves weren’t the only objective. The gas
industry wanted to grow its residential market, and homes that used gas for
cooking were likely also to use it for heat and hot water.
The industry’s efforts went well beyond careful product placement, according to
new research from the nonprofit Climate Investigations Center, which analyzes
corporate efforts to undermine climate science and slow the ongoing transition
away from fossil fuels. As the center’s study and a National Public Radio
investigation show, when evidence emerged in the early 1970s about the health
effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide exposure from gas stove use, the American
Gas Association launched a campaign designed to manufacture doubt about the
existing science.
As a researcher who has studied air pollution for many years—including gas
stoves’ contribution to indoor air pollution and health effects—I am not naïve
about the strategies that some industries use to avoid or delay regulations.
But I was surprised to learn that the multipronged strategy related to gas
stoves directly mirrored tactics that the tobacco industry used to undermine
and distort scientific evidence of health risks associated with smoking
starting in the 1950s."
Via Christoph S, who wrote "The issues were known since the 1970s and still the
gas industry continued. Same as today with the fossil fuel lobby"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
