The recent increase in public awareness over the health dangers posed by gas stoves has left many renters, including those living in public housing, worried about the harms of air pollution released by an appliance (even when turned off) they are powerless to replace or effectively mitigate, The Guardian reports. “I remember my elementary school was heated throughout the winter by burning coal or heating oil,” Russell Taylor, a member of We Act for Environmental Justice, who has lived in New York City public housing since 1972, told The Guardian. After school, Taylor added, “I went home and was exposed to gas burning from my stove. … Because of inadequate heating and freezing temperatures during the winter, we used the stove to stay warm in our apartment.”

Chefs Laud Induction

While methane gas industry-funded scientist-spokesperson Juile Goodman claims the numerous studies on the effects of air pollution released over the past 100 years by her employers’ products are all flawed and/or unreliable, a tactic she uses on behalf of her other benefactors in the tobacco and plastic industries facing similar scientific scrutiny, a growing number of chefs are embracing electric alternatives for their sheer culinary superiority.

“There was no altruistic intent in my decision to adopt induction. I use it because it’s better,” TikTok star Jon Kung, who first used induction stovetops in commercial kitchens in Macau, told The Guardian. They’re more responsive, and they are just as powerful, if not more powerful, than gas. My induction burner can boil eight quarts of water within 11 minutes – it’s super fast.”

Not only can induction cooking dramatically lower kitchen temperatures, Commercial chef and head of Forward Dining Solutions Christopher Galarza added, they are also much easier to clean, protecting kitchen staff from exposure to potentially harmful cleaning chemicals and reducing restaurants’ labor costs. (Renters & public housing: The Guardian; Goodman: New York Times $; Industry knowledge: Drilled; Culinary superiority: The Guardian)