Gas Appliances and the Rise of Lung Cancer

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a “green tip” to our readers in each newspaper. This edition’s tip was written by Resilient Palisades Board Member and Communications Director Sara G. Marti. A recent New York Times report highlighted the troubling fact that lung cancer rates are rising among women who never smoked. Women are now diagnosed at higher rates than men in this category, a disparity that should force us to reexamine the environmental exposures inside our own homes.

Gas stoves and other gas appliances release nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, benzene, and fine particulate matter. These are all pollutants linked to respiratory illness. For years, families were told gas was “clean.” We now know indoor air quality plays a far larger role in lung health than previously understood. And with wildfire smoke already exposing families to carcinogens and lung irritants, adding indoor gas pollution only increases the cumulative burden on our lungs.

That’s why SoCalGas’s current rebates for gas appliances, marketed specifically to wildfire survivors and families rebuilding, are so troubling. These incentives seize on a moment when residents are overwhelmed and vulnerable, encouraging them to reinstall gas systems that can no longer be included in standard new construction under Los Angeles’s all-electric mandate. Promoting appliances the city is actively phasing out, while lung cancer rises among women, is irresponsible.

As communities rebuild, we should not be subsidizing systems that undermine our health. Cleaner indoor air should be the minimum standard we protect, not the exception.