What Sarah Wilson is quitting now

Sarah Wilson’s book I Quit Sugar inspired people worldwide and now the influencer has another divisive commodity in her sights. Have your say.

A decade ago she announced she was quitting sugar, and now Sarah Wilson has another household commodity on her hit list: gas.

The TV host and influencer will on Wednesday be revealed as the face of a new Climate Council campaign called I Quit Gas.

Very quickly, household gas has become a flashpoint issue, with environmental activists saying we should be running our homes solely on renewable energy to limit greenhouse gas pollution, while opponents accuse the climate lobby of seeking to take choice away from consumers.

Ms Wilson said she was motivated to join the campaign for environmental reasons, and because of the “mounting evidence” of the harmful effects of gas in the home.

“Public awareness about the ticking time bombs in our homes is unacceptably low. Just like big tobacco and big sugar have gone to great lengths to downplay the dangers of their products, the gas industry has spent millions trying to falsely market gas as ‘natural’, when it is in fact toxic and dangerous,” she said.

But her stance marks a change of position; 10 years ago in a blog post Ms Wilson wrote about her concerns about the health impacts of exposure to the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from electric stovetops.

On Tuesday, Ms Wilson said she had since read up on the EMF issue and come to the conclusion “there are no real concerns there”.

That view accords with the World Health Organisation, which says there is no evidence low-level electromagnetic field exposure has any impact on human health.

Ms Wilson said her new campaign was not telling people to take gas appliances out of their homes immediately, but to consider converting to electricity when they next move, build or renovate.

But she also said this was not a simple process for many people.

“I am a renter myself, so I am totally aware that this is easier said than done. I have very recently bought myself a cheap portable induction cooktop,” she said.

Warming our homes with gas might become a thing of the past if environmentalists have their way.

Ms Wilson said she did not tell people what to do with I Quit Sugar, and she would be following a similar strategy with the new campaign.

“Nobody is coming for your gas,” she said.

“Nobody is banning it. Nobody going to demand that you rip out your kitchen. It’s really about giving people the information to make their own decisions.”

Ms Wilson said it was hard to quantify how many people abandoned sugar as a result of her campaign, but her books on the subject were published in 52 countries and an accompanying online program ran for five years.

She estimated 10 million people worldwide “would have done my [I Quit Sugar] program in some form or another”.

Sarah Wilson’s books have been published in 52 countries.

Sarah Wilson’s new quest is to convince Aussies to turn off the gas. Picture: John Appleyard

Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia president Ross Jamieson did not comment on Ms Wilson’s campaign, but said the idea gas was unsafe was a “false narrative” being pushed by the “all-electrification lobby”.

A recent study by the US consulting firm Catalyst Environmental Solutions found the type of food being cooked was a far more important factor in determining health outcomes than whether gas or electric stoves were used, Mr Jamieson said.

Quoting from the Catalyst study, Mr Jamieson said: “When it comes to the indoor air quality of cooking with electricity or natural gas, the health driver is what you are cooking, not the fuel you use to cook it.”

The authors of the study also stressed the need for ventilation during the cooking process, Mr Jamieson said.