Wood smoke, other pollutants inflame delicate lungs

Wood smoke, other pollutants inflame delicate lungs
The Napa Valley Register newspaper---California

By NATALIE HOFFMAN
Register Staff Writer
Saturday, February 02, 2008

If you enjoy unwinding in front of a crackling fire, you may be disappointed to learn that the ritual produces a menacing outdoor air pollutant — fine particulate matter. Karen Schkolnick of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said smoke from older wood burning stoves and fireplaces generate the lion’s share of the pollutant during winter months.

Dr. Karen Smith, public health officer for Napa County, said anyone with heart or lung conditions should avoid the outdoors when wood smoke is prevalent — especially on still evenings. “If you can smell it, this means that there is a substantial concentration of particles in the air,” she said.
Once inhaled, the substance — known to exacerbate lung and heart conditions — is absorbed into the bloodstream and can deposit itself inside plaque in blood vessels, said Dr. Larry Posner, a Napa pulmonologist.

As it turns out, Napa County residents may be inhaling more than their share — in 2007, air measurement stations in Napa and Berkeley showed higher average levels of fine particulate matter than stations in Benicia, San Francisco, Livermore, San Jose, Vallejo and Redwood City, according to data from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

This is particularly troubling news for locals who have been diagnosed with asthma, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung diseases. According to the Napa County Community Health Needs Assessment, released in November 2007, Napa County residents are more likely to have asthma than other Californians. Local asthmatics also seem to suffer more attacks. Almost 46 percent of Napa County’s asthmatic children and teens reported having an asthma attack in 2003 — the most recent year for which data was available — while the state average was about 36 percent, the assessment stated.

Posner said in addition to lung diseases sufferers, children, seniors and those with chronic heart disease are seeing the most negative health effects. Napa County residents who suffer from heart and lung disease should keep an eye on local levels of fine particulate matter before venturing outdoors, he said.

For real-time fine particulate matter measurements taken at Napa’s Jefferson Street station, visit the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Web site at www.baaqmd.gov.

Exposure to fine particulate matter like that in wood smoke can cause a throng of negative health effects, according to Jenny Bard, assistant director of communications and advocacy for the American Lung Association of California. “Research has linked particle pollution to respiratory disease, heart attacks, asthma attacks and strokes as well as increased admissions to the hospital for respiratory and heart conditions,” she stated in a press release. “Scientific evidence linking particle pollution to adverse health effects is so overwhelming that last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cut by half the allowable levels in the air.”

Previously set at 65 micrograms per cubic meter of air over a 24-hour period, acceptable levels of fine particulate matter were slashed to 35 micrograms in 2006, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Editor's note....Wood smoke levels are not acceptable at any level.