News

Did you see the headline about how cooking with a gas stove is reasonably safe especially if you have good equipment and adequate ventilation? Of course you didn’t. No major news outlet ran such a headline, even though the statement is accurate.

Instead, the Denver Post’s Matt Sebastian Tweeted the following summary of a story in the paper: “Cooking with a gas stove in your home is like living with a smoker, new Stanford University research conducted in metro Denver finds.” I responded, “I notice the words ‘can’ and ‘depending’ in the lede of the article, which are pretty important qualifiers!” When I looked a few days later, the headline atop the story said using such a stove “can be like living with a smoker.” Better! Then the implication is clear: It also can not be. And it usually isn’t.

Reporter Noelle Phillips’s lede says the of benzene present depends “on ventilation and the size of the house.” The further you read, the more qualifiers you find. Phillips quotes the Stanford-produced study as saying benzene “may increase health risks under some conditions.” By paragraph fourteen, we find, “Benzene levels exceeded health benchmarks in one-third of the 87 homes studied.” So—let me do the math here—that means benzene levels were low in two-thirds of homes. How long do you think the paper’s editors considered the headline, “Gas stoves produce low levels of benzene in two-thirds of homes”?

We can look to the full study for additional details. The study does discuss other toxins emitted by gas stoves, but it studies only benzene and makes comparisons only with respect to that substance. Smoking tobacco also emits carbon monoxide, tar, arsenic, formaldehyde, and other toxins.

Here is the actual, highly qualified comparison to smoking from the study: “In 9 of the 33 cases (29%),a single gas burner on high or an oven set to 350° F raised kitchen benzene concentrations above the upper range of indoor benzene concentrations attributable to secondhand tobacco smoke (0.34−0.78 ppbv [parts per billion by volume]).”

The study cites other research to the effect that “any additional benzene exposure increases leukemia and lymphoma risk,” implying that even low levels of benzene can have some adverse health effects. Of course, the same can be said about exposure to radiation from the Sun or to radon gas, both of which Coloradans tend to get at higher rates.

Here’s a funny detail: The study uses the same “benchmark” for second-hand smoke as for “the median indoor benzene concentration measured in the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Australia,” in both cases 0.78 parts per billion. Indeed, that figure is the “upper range of indoor benzene concentrations attributable to secondhand tobacco smoke.” In other words, in terms of benzene exposure, second-hand smoke can be about as bad as just being in a typical room.

To me, here is the most remarkable thing about the study: In almost all cases, its organizers intentionally turned off available ventilation so as to maximize benzene accumulation. “We kept the range hood (a potential sink) off if one was present,” the study says.

In two whole houses, the study organizers did turn on the vent hoods. In one of those houses, even with the hood on, “benzene concentrations exceeded” California standards of 0.94 parts per billion. However, if you refer to supplementary figure S2, you’ll find that the hood did nevertheless substantially reduce benzene levels. Obviously more-powerful ventilation displaces more air. In the other house, the hood didn’t seem to have much effect—but benzene levels never surpassed the California bar whether the hood was on or off.

Unfortunately, “surveys show that ventilation hoods are used by residents only 20–40% of the time,” the study relates. Ventilation doesn’t work if it’s not present, not fully functional, and not turned on!

Here is another remarkable fact, via supplementary figure S10: Benzene emissions varied radically by cooking unit, from close to zero to over 70 micrograms per minute. Even within the same brand, emissions could vary widely. A related detail: The study covered both natural gas and propane stoves, even though propane tends to emit more benzene.

When we turn to the Colorado Sun, we find this variant of the comparison to smoking: “Gas stoves in Colorado produce toxic benzene levels worse than secondhand smoke, Stanford study finds.” I had to chuckle at the subhead, “Researchers don’t want families to panic . . .” Apparently unnecessarily panicking people is the job of news journalists! Only after you dig through the hyperbolic bullshit of the first seventeen paragraphs of reporter Michael Booth’s article do you reach the 9-in-33 qualifier.

Here, then, is the common-sense conclusion from the study (one consistent with previous findings): Cooking with a clean-burning gas stove with good ventilation is reasonably safe. Burning a crappy stove with poor or no ventilation is likely to result in unhealthy buildups of benzene. (I personally cook with electric and plan to continue doing so.)

Unfortunately, common sense seems to be in short supply among Colorado’s news journalists and headline writers, who too often favor cheap click-bait over contextrich facts.

Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.

Proposed Ballot Measure Mandates Violent Offenders Serve Most Of Prison Time Prior To Parole

by Sherrie Peif, Complete Colorado Page 2

DENVER —A man known for putting tax-reducing initiatives on the Colorado ballot has shifted to criminal justice matters, saying the state legislature won’t do anything to get the criminals off the street, so he’s decided to take it to the people.

Michael Fields, President of Advance Colorado is currently pursuing an initiative for 2024 that would mandate violent offenders serve a large percentage of their sentence before being released back into the public.

Fields said his initiative is the result of a 2021 crime in which Kenneth Dean Lee was arrested for impersonating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent to an Aurora family and then sexually assaulting their 7-year-old daughter while they were in the home.

At the time of his arrest, Lee was on parole for similar crimes he committed a decade earlier. For those crimes, Lee was sentenced to 23 years to life but was released after serving nine and half years, or just 40 percent of his sentence.

If passed, Initiative 71 — which it is known as for now — would force violent offenders to serve most of their sentences, possibly lowering the recidivism rates and reducing crime in Colorado, Fields said.

“Why do we have the fourth worst recidivism rate (in the country), but we’re letting people out after only serving 40 percent of their sentence,” Fields said. “I understand good behavior, you get a little time off. But 23 years to life, how are you out after just nine years?”

Fields initially attempted to put this on the 2022 ballot, but it was submitted late in the process and Attorney General Phil Weiser’s representative on the state’s title board was able to block it, Fields said.

Initiative 71 is currently in the Legislative Council’s hands, but the process should go rather quickly, Fields said, because it has already gone through the process successfully once this year, despite a multi-subject challenge in the courts. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in Fields’ favor, and it was ready to begin gathering signatures, but Fields decided to change something in the ballot language, so the measure will go back before the title board.

“This will be on the ballot next year,” Fields said. “This is one that will pass, that will have an impact. It will be only about 500 people a year that will be impacted by it, but they are the worst of the worst.”

Fields said after some investigation, some Class 2 violent felons are getting out on average after just 43 percent of their sentence. Class 2 felonies include such things as second-degree murder, rape, first-degree assault, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery, to name a few.

Under this initiative, most people sentenced for second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, first-or second-degree sexual assault, first-degree arson, first-degree burglary or aggravated robbery that was committed between July 1, 1987, and Jan. 1, 2025, and who had been convicted previously of a crime of violence would be required to serve at least 75 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Anyone convicted and sentenced for second-degree murder, first-degree assault, class 2 felony kidnapping, certain sexual assault crimes, first-degree arson, firstdegree burglary, or aggravated robbery after Jan. 1, 2025, will be required to serve 85 percent of their time before becoming eligible for parole.

Anyone convicted of the same crimes in the two different categories named who was convicted twice previously of a crime of violence will have to serve 100 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Fields said the initiative polls at a 78 percent acceptance rate.

“People say ‘Of course we want them to stay in longer,’ “Fields said.

Fields said the problem is not just with Colorado’s laws — which do not classify sexual assault as a violent crime — but partially the parole board too, which determines what is and what isn’t good behavior. According to a 9News report after Lee was arrested in 2021, the parole board released him because “appropriate treatment dosage” was received and “adequate institutional conduct” was met.

Just months after he was released, “he goes and does the exact same thing to a 7-year-old girl in Aurora,” Fields said. “Go explain to that family why this guy was out when he got 23 years to life, and he was allowed to do the same thing to your little girl.”

Fields said there are many stories like this where they are re-offending after they should have been incarcerated for 25 years or more and they are out after spending just a small percentage of that time behind bars.

Fields said Initiative 71 should be out of the title board and gathering signatures in the next few weeks.

“I’m excited about it,” Fields said. “It can have an impact. This is such a commonsense thing that the legislature should pass. Once you find out it’s 43 percent it’s ridiculous. It’s the one thing that everyone latches on to. I talk about a lot of issues on the campaign trail, but this is the one where (everyone), is like ‘yes, that makes sense.”