There’s nothing natural about the methane gas leaking from our stoves and pipes.
“Natural gas” is a misleading phrase.
Sure, it sounds clean and harmless, but this fuel is anything but. In reality, it’s made mostly of methane — a potent climate-altering pollutant. And it’s not just the planet’s health at stake: when methane burns, it releases a cocktail of gases and particulates that can accumulate indoors at levels far higher than what environmental agencies consider safe.
Increasingly, research shows that methane pollution and its byproducts are taking a real toll on both our bodies and the climate. Here’s what we know about the pollutants gas appliances emit — and how we can work together to phase them out in our community.
What is “natural” gas?
“Natural” gas is no more natural than gasoline, oil, or coal — in fact, all these fuels form in the same way.
Over millions of years, dead plants and animals decomposed underground, forming “fossil fuels.”
While heavier fuels, like petroleum, sank to the bottom of underground cavities, gases rose upward and filled tiny nooks and crannies inside rocks and sand. In the United States, this gas is accessed by blasting a highly pressurized mixture of water and chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release trapped gas — a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
That gas is then sent to processing plants and transported to communities through pipelines. At every step throughout this process, methane leaks into our air. Source: Environmental Defense Fund (pdf).
What is methane’s impact on the climate?
“Natural” gas got its reputation for burning clean because it doesn’t clog the air with soot like coal does.
However, methane has another, more insidious impact.
That percentage of the gas that leaks into the atmosphere — as much as 11% — has an outsized impact on our planet. It traps 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period of time, making its near-term impact on the climate far worse than that of coal, according to climate think-tank RMI.
There’s also a positive flip side to that sobering fact: while methane is potent, it also has a much shorter life span than carbon dioxide.
That means cutting methane pollution would produce a relatively rapid drop in the climate pollution heating our planet and driving extreme weather, says RMI. Just minimizing methane leakage would have the same impact as removing all U.S. cars from the road for a year.
What does “natural” gas do to our bodies?
When we use “natural” gas to power our stoves, water heaters, and furnaces, it creates invisible, toxic pollution inside our homes. The most concerning of these pollutants is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is emitted when methane is burned at high heat.
Exposure to NO2 is linked to asthma, increased risk of respiratory infection, higher rates of heart disease, pregnancy complications, and more, according to the American Lung Association.
One study from researchers at Columbia University, in partnership with the environmental justice organization WE ACT, found that cooking with “natural” gas increased indoor concentrations of NO2 to levels nearly twice as high as the outdoor safe limit.
“Natural” gas is also infused with other chemicals that leak into our homes constantly, even when our appliances aren’t in use. One of these chemicals is benzene, a well-known carcinogen linked to leukemia and other blood cancers. A 2023 Stanford study published in Environmental Science and Technology found that gas stoves can lead to unsafe levels of benzene throughout the home, even in bedrooms and living areas.
Gas exposure has a real impact on our health. In 2024, Spanish researchers estimated that European residents are twice as likely to die prematurely due to exposure to “natural” gas from stoves than they are to die from a car crash. They also estimated that gas stoves lead to more than a million asthma cases in Europe each year.
Children disproportionately bear the brunt of these impacts. They move around more, breathe in more air than adults, have weaker immune systems, and have more lung surface area relative to their body weight compared to adults. That makes them more susceptible to absorbing pollution from gas appliances.
A 2022 study found that nearly 13% of childhood asthma cases could be attributable to gas stove exposure. A 2025 study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials suggested that children are nearly twice as likely as the adults in their home to develop cancer due to gas stove exposure.
What are the alternatives?
RMI calls “natural” gas the low-hanging fruit of climate pollutants. The best way that individuals can aid this transition away from natural gas is by swapping out gas appliances for electric ones. Plenty of folks have already made the switch to ultra-efficient induction cooking, heat pump water heaters, and heat pump heating-and-cooling systems.
Read how our board member Sara Dinari switched from gas to electric and how Electrify Ashland Now volunteer Ben Scott electrified everything possible in his house at our blog!
There is lots of funding available to help you make the switch — including brand new rebates from the City of Ashland. And our Electrify Ashland Now action team is available to help you navigate electrification. For a free consultation, just fill out our intake form. We are here for you!
Ashland Climate Collaborative Board Member, Sara Dinari, with new energy efficient electric heat pump!
A final note… the compost connection
The reason we are so passionate about compost is that methane is also created when food decomposes when sealed off from oxygen in landfills. Our Community Compost Action Team is here to help everyone compost. Read How Food Waste Contributes to Climate Pollution and then learn about composting options in Ashland – either at home or by using a compost service.