AOC inundated with insults from conservatives after flagging dangers of gas stoves

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was met with a wave of apoplectic conservative criticism when she shared the dangers of gas stoves in a post on Twitter.

Earlier this week, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced it was considering a ban on gas stoves, citing concerns that they cause indoor pollution that has been linked to asthma in children.

Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson took offence to the news, and vowed to never let the government take his gas stove.

"I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove," he wrote. "If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT."

Though it’s not clear, Mr Jackson was likely joking to some degree in his response, as he clearly chose to invoke the same language gun owners use when expressing their fear that the government will try to take their firearms.

Regardless, Ms Ocasio-Cortez also saw the opportunity for a joke, and quote tweeted Mr Jackson.

"Did you know that ongoing exposure to N02 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance," she wrote next to Mr Jackson’s tweet.

She followed up with a second tweet telling readers they could learn more about the potential hazards of gas stoves along with a link to aVox article.

The congresswoman’s intentions were immediately questioned by critics, with one right-wing content creator asking "what company is paying you to say that?"

Nick Freitas, a GOP state lawmaker in Virginia, took his criticism in a conspiratorial direction, suggesting that the government wanted the public on electric utilities so it could control the population.

"Did you know that it’s a lot harder for the government to arbitrarily cut off your access to power if [you’re] using gas as opposed to electric?" he asked. "Or is that really the point?"

There is no evidence that the government intends to "arbitrarily cut off your access to power," though law enforcement has expressed a fear that right-wing extremists are attacking the electrical grid.

Mr Freitas was not the only lawmaker to get in on the stove debate.

Senator Ted Cruz shared a photo of first lady Jill Biden cooking over a gas stove and included the caption "rules for thee but not for me."

No action has been taken at this time, and Ms Biden is not the head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Senator Joe Manchin, though not a Republican, was in line with their messaging regarding the stoves.

"This is a recipe for disaster," he wrote in a tweet. "The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner. I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on."

He even suggested that the USCPS should be subject to "reevaluation" if stoves were its "greatest" concern.

The oil and gas industry has been one of Mr Manchin’s top sources of donation money since 2017, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.

Richard Trumka Jr, a commissioner at the USCPSC, told Bloomberg that gas stoves are "a hidden hazard," and stated that if they "can’t be made safe" they "can be banned."

A study published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that using gas stoves indoors is connected to a higher risk of childhood asthma, according to CNN.

The study found that nearly 13 per cent of current child asthma in the US is linked to using a gas stove indoors.

“Short-term exposure to NO2 is linked to worsening asthma in children, and long-term exposure has been determined to likely cause the development of asthma,” lawmakers said in a letter to CSPC chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric. The legislators also wrote that it can worsen cardiovascular diseases.