Proposed Wood Burning Ban-San Francsco Bay Area

Proposed wood burning ban draws fire

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/20/MNGQUGD16.DTL


Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Sunday, January 20, 2008

A proposed ban on burning wood in the Bay Area's 1 million fireplaces and stoves on bad-air days has drawn praise - and heat - from hundreds of residents as regulators consider how to balance the health risks of inhaling smoke against the need to stay warm.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's plan to restrict wood burning comes after federal officials imposed tighter limits on emissions of fine particles, a move that regional officials say could lead them to declare 20 Spare the Air days during the winter season. There have been six such days in the region since November.

After sifting through more than 400 comments, Bay Area air-quality officials plan to refine their proposal by spring, intending to put new rules in place by next winter. Presto logs and logs made of coffee grounds and nutshells would be regulated like wood.

"We know there are very toxic components in wood smoke," said Dr. Janice Kim, public health medical officer with the air toxicology and epidemiology branch of the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

People who burn wood "are exposing themselves, their neighbors and their families to harmful compounds, including carcinogens," Kim said.

Influenced by a rash of studies showing that wood smoke poses severe health hazards, two-thirds of the residents who commented on the air district's plan said they favor mandatory controls on haze, smoke and airborne dust to control pockets of plumes in their neighborhoods.

Paul Spiegel of Walnut Creek said, "There is no escape from inhaling these emissions, even inside your own home with an air-cleaner going." He complained that people use green wood and construction waste that burn dirty.

Spiegel said he'd accept more government controls "to allow these chronic and abusive wood-burners to needlessly pump our lungs full of their irritating, penetrating and persistent fumes and particulates which bring great risks to our immediate and long term health."

But James Sayre of Oakland wrote: "Sometimes it seems as if our government is trying to squeeze out every last bit of fun and joy in life (unless it is sold to us at a profit by major corporations). This proposed regulation of private fireplaces seems quite heavy-handed and probably impractical to enforce, to boot."

Sayre said environmental regulators should instead crack down on diesel truck and bus emissions.

For more than a decade, the Bay Area's air quality district has considered controlling wood smoke from about 1,400 cords of wood - enough to fill the beds of 2,800 pickup trucks - that are burned daily in cold weather.

Air regulators in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento have put in place "Check Before You Burn" restrictions, which prohibit wood fires during periods of poor air quality.

"For the most part, once folks understood how the rule works, that there are not burning restrictions every day, they weren't against it," said Aleta Kennard, program supervisor for technical services at the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

As early as 1990, scientists attributed 40 percent of the airborne particulates in San Jose in the wintertime to wood smoke, and the researchers found an increase in deaths related to an increase in particulates. In 1997, state researchers conducted a study in Santa Clara County that linked particulate levels and increased emergency room visits for asthma.

Since 1998, about 40 cities and counties in the Bay Area have adopted regulations, mainly prohibiting the construction of fireplaces in new homes - and the cities of Fremont, Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Martinez, Mill Valley, Oakland, Rohnert Park, San Pablo and Union City banned burning on bad-air days.

Studies have found that the microscopic mix of solids and liquid droplets in wood smoke are composed of acids, organic chemicals, metals, dust particles and allergens - quite different from the emissions from burning fossil fuels. Scientists are examining the toxicity of the entire mixture - not just separate components - just as they do for tobacco smoke.

UCSF associate clinical professor Dr. Michael Lipsett, who also serves as chief of the exposure assessment section in the California Department of Public Health, was among several authors of a review published last year concluding that wood-burning stoves and fireplaces "emit significant quantities of known health-damaging pollutants, including several cancer-causing compounds."

Among them are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, aldehydes, respirable particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and other free radicals.

"In the wintertime, residential wood combustion is a significant contributor to fine particles in the air," said Lipsett.

The problem with wood smoke is that it hangs close to the ground, particularly on windless, foggy nights. Complaints come from all over the Bay Area - from Cow Hollow in San Francisco to Menlo Park, Novato and Castro Valley - where neighbors' wood smoke has invaded streets, yards and houses.

Walnut Creek resident Spiegel said the smoke is noticeable as soon as he emerges from the eastern end of the Caldecott Tunnel in Contra Costa County.

"It can come as a big surprise if you're not used to it," he said in an interview.

But rural resident Vernon Huffman, who heats his house with wood on a ranch outside of San Anselmo, said the proposal "will turn this neighborhood into a tattletale state. One smell of smoke will have the cops at each other's doors, which ultimately is a violation of our civil and human rights."

His natural gas heating system is inefficient and costs too much to run, he said, and a ban on burning during periods of poor air would "force me to install a heating and air system and be reliant on PG&E."

Huffman's problem is a problem for the Bay Area air district, too.

Eric Pop, an air-quality specialist for the agency, said his staff is wrestling with how to best define "sole source of heat," one of the few exemptions that the district has offered in the proposed rule. Regulators realize that people without connections to utilities or who can't afford other means of heat need to stay warm, but they don't want people to lower air quality for others by burning wood.

The air district is considering an option that would allow cleaner-burning devices, such as EPA-certified stoves and fireplace inserts, to operate during restricted periods. Officials are also setting up a program to offer retailer discounts to residents who want to upgrade devices.

In west Marin County, where air pollution from wood stoves hovers on still, cold nights, Susan Goldsborough is searching for an amicable solution. Her neighbors can use electricity or propane, but many choose wood for warmth.

"Many residents who would consider themselves to be environmentally aware and live a green life burn wood," she said. "It seems to be a blind spot."

Goldsborough won't let her grandchildren sleep over on smoky nights from November to February, and she suggests that sensors be put in place in problem valleys so neighbors are not policing neighbors.

"We have the right to clean air," she said.

Online resources
Bay Area Air Quality Management District's proposed regulations:
sfgate.com/ZCEC

Air district's report on wood smoke:
sfgate.com/ZCED

"Woodsmoke Health Effects: A Review," Journal of Inhalation Toxicology:
sfgate.com/ZCEA

Health effects of wood smoke
-- Microscopic particles of smoke are so small they get lodged deep in the lungs and sometimes in the bloodstream. In the lungs, they can cause structural and chemical changes. Little is known about effects on the heart. Researchers suspect exposure to the smoke can cause heart attacks and heart arrhythmias.

-- Long-term exposure can reduce lung function and cause bronchitis and premature death. Short-term exposure can aggravate lung disease, causing asthma attacks and susceptibility to infection.

-- Wood smoke and other particles pose a greater threat to adults when they are physically active because they breathe faster and more deeply, taking in more particles.

-- Older adults are sensitive to air pollution, scientists suspect, because they may have undiagnosed heart or lung disease. Children are sensitive because they are active and also because their lungs are still developing.

-- Most at risk are people with heart or lung disease such as coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. People with diabetes may be at increased risk because they may have underlying cardiovascular disease. New studies suggest that inhaling fine particles can cause low birth weight in newborns, preterm deliveries and possibly fetal and infant deaths.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Weigh in
The opportunity to comment on the air board's proposed wood-burning restrictions ended Dec. 10, but people can e-mail suggestions to the air district's staff or board of directors at: sparetheair@baaqmd.gov.


E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/20/MNGQUGD16.DTL

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