SEEKING HELP FROM WOOD SMOKE EMISSIONS

This is a copy of e-mail that was sent to Mary seeking help--
Mary J. Rozenberg
President
Clean Air Revival, Inc.
PO Box 1045
Point Arena, CA 95468
Mary.Rozenberg@gmail.com
website: http://burningissues.org
(707) 882-3601
Fax (707) 882-3602


December 4, 2007

Hi, Mary. We are in the Cincinnati Ohio area. Loveland,Ohio is our mailing address. We are at XXXXXXX in Loveland Ohio. 45140. This is actually Symmes Township right at the corner of Hamilton, Warren and Claremont Counties.

Our problems persist. So far, no one is willing to help us at the local or state level. We are now trying to get a building inspection on the house next door which continues to pour chimney smoke over us. The fire department did stop the neighbor's outside burning. But as I said, their chimney 15 feet from us and above us produces smoke that gets in at ever opening of our house. All windows. Even the bathroom vents. We have taped up everything, but that only helps some. And I continue to have rashes and my wife continues to have tail bone pain.

Thanks,
J-K


Ø Our house and our immediate neighbors’ house set among houses that produce a lot of wood smoke. As a result, J our immediate neighbor had to be on steroids all summer long. (One neighbor has since stopped burning, and we are deeply grateful).

Ø In J's case, we know it’s the wood smoke, because when there’s no smoke, the problems (itchy rashes) begin healing, and the moment smoke reappears, the problems come back.

Ø Before we realized what was causing the horrible rashes all over J's body, (resulting in two trips to urgent care and one to the emergency room), we tried everything: pulling out the flowers we had planted, pulling out any poison ivy we could find, changing laundry detergents, completely washing down the inside of our house, etc. Only when we pinpointed the cause, did we start finding occasional relief.

Ø K’s reaction to the wood smoke is an aggravation of her auto-immune condition, resulting in spinal arthritis. Now, instead of making at least two trips “around the block” every day, she has to do extensive exercises just to be able to walk. Again, no smoke, problem goes away; smoke, problem comes back.

Ø When the new development at the end of XXXX Drive was just getting started, a massive pile—the size of a large house—of wood chips was left for about a year. The pile smoldered during that time as it was degrading into mulch. During that time, a father in his 40’s—living within 100 feet of that pile—suddenly came down with cancer and was dead within 6 weeks.

Ø Down the street from that family, awhile later, a baby died of SIDS. The baby was at a day care center. The baby’s home is right behind us and therefore right in the path of smoke for the two house causing us problems.

Ø Another neighbor near the compost pile was taken to the hospital by ambulance on several occasions from flare-ups of Chron’s Disease. A hundred yards in another direct from the smoldering wood pile a man had quadruple bypass heart surgery (a long-time) smoker.

Ø Around the same time, two other baby boys in nearby households were born prematurely and with low birth weight. Both of them have acute multiple allergies.

Ø One of the two families producing wood smoke on both sides of us has a father in his early forties who suffered kidney failure recently and has heart trouble. His wife, also in her late thirties or early forties, has severe arthritis. A man two houses up from us and on the other side of one of the two families regularly producing wood smoke has such extreme allergies that he never opens his windows.

Ø A friend of ours two hundred yards north of us in the woods where wood smoke is continually being produced almost died after getting a flu shot and now has lupus and skin rashes. Her teenage son is Autistic.

We hope you can do something to help us.

Thanks

J&K
Loveland, Ohio