Councillor Carr is after your gas stove and fireplace

May 31, 2023 New Motion before City of Vancouver Council

Photo taken from the Courier archive.

Councillor Adriane Carr is at it again, finding new ways to waste City of Vancouver staff time, all in the name of climate change. Here is her motion: Ensuring Healthier Climate-Smart Homes.

Honestly, how many times in a year does someone use a fireplace? The days of someone at home slaving over a stove for hours a day are long gone.

The contribution of these two appliances to climate change is negligible. Much, much less than gas-powered vehicles, whose elimination would not make that much of a difference to climate change, either.

In the words of William Rees, former Director of the University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning and co-creator of the term "ecological footprint":

"In the world as a whole, automobiles contribute only about seven or eight per cent of carbon emissions. In North America, it's probably twice that. So even if you give up a car, even if everybody gave up their automobiles, the best result possible would be a marginal reduction," William Rees explained.

And in terms of increased asthma risk in children, blame the dishwasher.

Dishes that are too clean interfere with the development of the immune system.

"We therefore speculate that hand dishwashing is associated with increased microbial exposure, causing immune stimulation and, hence, less allergy.”

Inhalation of dish soap powder can cause lung disease.

Even worse are commercial dishwashers with toxic rinse agents that may damage your gut and cause chronic autoimmune diseases.

…these findings have significant implications for public health. "The effect that we found could mark the beginning of the destruction of the gut's epithelial layer and trigger the onset of many chronic diseases," he says. Akdis calls for an immediate response: "It is important to inform the public about this risk, since alcohol ethoxylates seem to be commonly used in commercial dishwashers."

Dr. Melissa Lem missed that one as she walked, cycled and rolled away. Ever heard of using an open window or a fume hood while cooking?

Even drug inhalation rooms, also proposed for the May 31st Council meeting, are supposed to be ventilated and safe. The staff report doesn't detail if WorkSafeBC has been consulted, how air quality will be monitored or how potentially life-threatening asthma attacks from smoked opioids would be managed.

Councillor Carr doesn't take into account extreme weather events that knock out electricity. In winter, the heat from a gas fireplace or stove could be life-sustaining.

Let's stay away from trivial motions that offer no benefit to people or the planet.

Make your opinion known before May 31st.