There are reasons to prefer cooking on gas, but first let me state that the evidence is quite clear; gas stoves are bad for us and we should be phasing them out.

• Temperature response. When you change the temp on a gas stove it’s instant (but then, induction stoves also have this benefit).

• Predictable power. I can look at the size of the flames and know how high or low it is. Sure, the sensitivity of the dial or the size of the burner may vary between manufacturers, but that relationship between quantity/size of flames is something I can look at and intuitively figure out. Every electric stove is different. What does 5 mean on an electric stove? Damned if I know until I’ve had the chance to use it a few times.

Is any of this enough to negate the health impacts? It shouldn’t be. Add efficiency on top of the health stuff and switching should be a no brainer. But then, many people’s only experience is older, shitty coil electric stoves. And those are really shit. I have one of those right now. It’s fictional and I hate it.

Some people are going to question the science. Because people are naturally bad at science. Seriously, undergraduates spend almost as much time being trained to use methodology to overcome our natural stupidity as they do learning theory. Normal people are likely to think “my family has always used a gas stove and it hasn’t harmed us,” without thinking about how it had to compete with leaded paint, leaded gasoline, smoking, second hand smoke, asbestos, and a myriad of other harm factors we’re significantly further along in removing from our environment.

And then there’s the ‘culture war’ idiots.