[JKCalhoun]

Fires—interesting point.

I'm in a neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska that is maybe 5 years old—new housing development. There are no chimneys on any of the homes.

When I was in the Bay Area, sure, not a surprise. I am surprised the Midwaste gives a shit.

(To be sure, everyone seems to have fire pits in their backyards, ha ha. You take what you can get, I suppose.)

[cucumber3732842]

It's not about giving a shit. It's about everything costing money and the highly engineered finance math that underpins 99.9% of construction/development and all the sub trades works out best when you use high efficiency everything which doesn't have "hot" exhaust so you get little vent stacks per appliance instead of a chimney.

[tialaramex]

I don't think new builds in this country (unless they're large houses and it's for show) have had chimneys for close to fifty years.

Bathrooms needing an openable window for ventilation lasted longer than chimneys here and I guess those were gone by like the turn of the century because fans†?

[Ekaros]

I feel like kitchens even if not burning stuff should have proper extraction fans. So I think there likely will be more balanced view with proper ventilation and air quality.