Fireplace smoke damaging to health

ContraCostaTimes.com


Fireplace smoke damaging to health
By Denis Cuff

STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 12/03/2007 03:02:59 AM PST


Because wood fires in homes are a common tradition, it can be hard to believe fireplace and stove smoke is harmful.

But a growing body of scientific and medical evidence in recent decades suggests smoke and other particles are harmful at lower levels than commonly believed.

The studies linked particle pollution to asthma, bronchitis, stroke, heart attacks and weakened immune systems.

The elderly are most vulnerable, but particle pollution can stunt children's lung development, researchers in Southern California have found.

"There is so much evidence, it's hard to see how a reasonable person could conclude there is no health effect," said Dr. Anthony Gerber, an assistant processor of medicine at UC San Francisco.

Researchers examined death rates in several urban areas and found higher rates in highly polluted areas.

In experiments, researchers found that breathing fine particles harmed animals.

Alarmed by these studies, the federal Environmental Protection Agency last year tightened the public health standard for particulate pollution called PM 2.5.

"Even the Bush administration, which doesn't believe in global warming, determined that the public needed greater protection from particulates," said Mark Ross, chairman of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and a supporter of a proposed rule to restrict wood fires on nights when air quality is low.

The Bay Area violated the new standard nearly 30 days last year after not violating the old,weaker, standard for several years.

Fine particles in the air from wood smoke, vehicle exhaust, construction dust and other sources accounts for about as many premature deaths in California as secondhand tobacco smoke or automobile crashes, the state Air Resources Board said in a 2004 report.

"Fireplaces may seem innocuous, but they're just part of the particulates from many sources that are a serious health problem," said Dimitri Stanich, a spokesman for the state air board.

His agency estimated that fine particle pollution accounted for 6,500 premature deaths in California in 2002.

In comparison, car crashes killed 3,200 people in California in 2002, and secondhand tobacco smoke accounted for 4,200 to 7,000 premature deaths in 2000, the state agency said.

Fine particle pollution has other effects on people, too: sicknesses, hospitalizations, and many missed days of work and school, the report said.

Much finer than the width of a human hair, fine particles can slip past the body's natural defenses and lodge deep into lungs. They also cross over into the blood as it absorbs oxygen, medical experts say.