Environment and Human Health, Inc.
Wood Smoke
Homeowners have right to be free of wood smoke
EHHI Op-Ed
Wood smoke, although it conjures up feelings of New England warmth and fond memories of being by the fire, is now becoming a serious health problem for some. Many of our neighborhoods have houses cheek by jowl and smoke from neighboring chimneys and wood stoves is entering homes. When this happens, it does not cause the affected people to have warm feelings about wood smoke.
In fact, those who are exposed to their neighbors' wood smoke often get sore eyes and throats, and if the exposure continues, it often leads to more serious respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and even pneumonia. Wood smoke exposure causes a decrease in lung function and causes an increase in severity of existing lung disease, depending on the length and severity of exposure time.
Wood smoke is made up of many tiny particles. These particles are so small that closed doors and windows do not stop them from entering homes, even newer energy-efficient, weather-tight homes. This is why people are reporting that they are having trouble with their neighbor's wood smoke.
Wood smoke and tobacco smoke are quite similar in chemical composition. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, many components of wood smoke are carcinogenic and have many of the same components as secondhand cigarette smoke. For those suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems, wood smoke is a very harmful exposure.
Environment and Human Health Inc. has been receiving calls for help from people all over the state who are being harmed by the wood smoke from neighbors' wood stoves or fireplaces. The state needs to do something to address this problem and help these people.
What to do and how to regulate? The Iowa Supreme Court declared in 1998 that government bodies do not have the right to allow burning resulting in smoke crossing property lines.
How do we protect those affected by their neighbors' wood smoke and yet not regulate those fireplaces and wood stoves that are not hurting people? A guideline should be that if a person's wood burning causes the resulting smoke to enter a house so that the smoke affects that homeowner it should not be allowed. No one should suffer in their own home sore eyes, sore throats or breathing problems at the hands of their neighbors' wood smoke.
Because this is a case by case problem, it does not lend itself to a general ban. What it does call for is empowering local health departments with better and more specific wording in their "nuisance code."
Presently, local health departments do have the power to regulate smoke as a nuisance problem, but it would help them function better if the state legislature would pass a bill making the "nuisance code" wording specific to wood smoke.
Connecticut has a history of protecting citizens from harmful smoke. Protecting people from wood smoke would not be the first time the state has faced health issues from burning. Years ago, citizens used to burn their trash. When that activity was recognized as a health hazard, it was made illegal. As well, one conjured up sentimental feelings of autumn by the wonderful smell of burning leaves. That activity became such a fire and health hazard that the burning of leaves also was made illegal.
The state needs to step in now and once again help the people who are being badly affected in their homes by neighbors' wood smoke. Many of the people being affected do not have the money to hire lawyers to bring nuisance suits that would bring them relief.
People should have the right to breathe clean air in their own homes. No one should have the right to live in their houses in a way that keeps their neighbors from living healthfully in theirs.
Nancy Alderman is president of Environment and Human Health Inc., 1191 Ridge Road, North Haven 06473. E-mail: info@ehhi.org.
EHHI | 1191 Ridge Road North Haven, Connecticut 06473 | Phone: (203) 248-6582 | Fax: (203) 288-7571 | info@ehhi.org
"Fighting for Our Clean Air Rights against Outdoor Wood Boilers in Illinois"
"Fighting for Our Clean Air Rights against Outdoor Wood Boilers in Illinois"
http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair
Our Mission:
My wife and I developed this page to show the horror of how lives can change because of the selfish action of a neighbor. Having clean air to breathe is a fundamental common law right. We have been forced to live with and breathe smoke on a continual basis because of an Outdoor Wood Boiler located directly across from our house. We are not just fighting for our own rights, but the rights of everyone else who wishes to breathe clean air. We hope the information on this page will benefit anyone who has a similar situation, and will find our experiences resourceful in the continuing battle for clean air.
About Us:
We are a recently newly married couple who moved into our first home in December of 2005. The fall of 2006 was when our nightmare began. We are an average couple trying to make ends meet, and have been struggling to do so. We hope to one day start a family, but feel that at this time our financial strain cannot allow us to do so. We certainly also fear the health risks of exposing a child to a lifestyle of constant smoke inhalation. We feel that not only our clean air has been taken from us, but also the opportunity for us to start a family.
Please examine the many features of this page, including the pictures and video in which we have uploaded. These are all pictures of the boiler that we have had no choice in living with. Many things have been chronicled in the blog section to make this page more accessible.
http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair
Editor’s note….Please visit and support this great web site.
http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair
Our Mission:
My wife and I developed this page to show the horror of how lives can change because of the selfish action of a neighbor. Having clean air to breathe is a fundamental common law right. We have been forced to live with and breathe smoke on a continual basis because of an Outdoor Wood Boiler located directly across from our house. We are not just fighting for our own rights, but the rights of everyone else who wishes to breathe clean air. We hope the information on this page will benefit anyone who has a similar situation, and will find our experiences resourceful in the continuing battle for clean air.
About Us:
We are a recently newly married couple who moved into our first home in December of 2005. The fall of 2006 was when our nightmare began. We are an average couple trying to make ends meet, and have been struggling to do so. We hope to one day start a family, but feel that at this time our financial strain cannot allow us to do so. We certainly also fear the health risks of exposing a child to a lifestyle of constant smoke inhalation. We feel that not only our clean air has been taken from us, but also the opportunity for us to start a family.
Please examine the many features of this page, including the pictures and video in which we have uploaded. These are all pictures of the boiler that we have had no choice in living with. Many things have been chronicled in the blog section to make this page more accessible.
http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair
Editor’s note….Please visit and support this great web site.
Burning Issues web site---Wood Smoke Information
Monday, March 24, 2008
BurningIssues.org---web site
Clean Air Revival
A great web site to visit for medical, scientific, historical, and current happenings about wood smoke is......http://burningissues.org/car-www/index.html
Mail:
Mary Rozenberg, President
http://BurningIssues.org
Clean Air Revival, Inc.
PO Box 1045
Point Arena,
CA 95468-1045
Email: Mary.Rozenberg@gmail.com
For comments regarding the web site Email:WebMaster@BurningIsues.org
Please visit this web site and support their great efforts!
Thank you.
Clean Air Revival
A great web site to visit for medical, scientific, historical, and current happenings about wood smoke is......http://burningissues.org/car-www/index.html
Mail:
Mary Rozenberg, President
http://BurningIssues.org
Clean Air Revival, Inc.
PO Box 1045
Point Arena,
CA 95468-1045
Email: Mary.Rozenberg@gmail.com
For comments regarding the web site Email:WebMaster@BurningIsues.org
Please visit this web site and support their great efforts!
Thank you.
Letter to the Editor-Daily Herald
Letter to the Editor-Fence Post
Daily Herald Newspaper
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Published---March 5, 2008
The Daily Herald story (Feb. 24) about the Breathe Healthy Air Coalition's efforts on our behalf is very encouraging. Their actions to clean up the air in Illinois by alerting us to the adverse health effects of smoke from residential biomass burning (wood, leaves, yard waste etc), seeking a ban on wood burning, and proposing governmental financial incentives to convert indoor wood-burning fireplaces to gas or electric is to be commended.
It is an indisputable fact the air quality in the Chicago metropolitan, and the northeastern section of Illinois is unhealthy to humans and the environment because of fine particulate matter, noxious gases, carcinogens, greenhouse gases and poisonous chemicals spewed out by coal burning electric power plants, manufacturing industries, trucks, cars, fireplaces, wood stoves and residential open burning.
Because of the state's poor air quality, in April 2008, Illinois must submit a state implementation plan (SIP) to the U.S. EPA in accordance with the Clean Air Act describing how Illinois will clean up the air in 12 counties (including Lake, Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Kane and Will) that have fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 -- fine solids and aerosols 2.5 microns in diameter and less suspended in air) concentrations above the acceptable standard.
Fine particulate matter comes from many sources. One is the smoke from residential open burning of leaves, yard waste and yes, the beloved recreational campfire. Short-term exposure of humans to fine particulate matter has been linked to death from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, increase in heart attacks, strokes, and in the severity of asthma attacks. Long-term exposure to PM 2.5 has been linked to slow lung function growth in children and increased risk of dying from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Illinois did a great job of protecting residents from the deleterious effects of breathing second-hand tobacco smoke by banning smoking in many areas. Hopefully, they will follow their good works by including a ban on residential open burning in the State Implementation Plan due to the U.S. EPA in April. Such a ban would protect Illinois residents from the detrimental and lethal effects of breathing the toxic smoke (smoke that contains the same carcinogens and toxic substances as tobacco smoke) from residential campfires, and leaf burning that occur right next-door.
Alexa Chun, R.Ph., Ph.D
Gurnee
Daily Herald Newspaper
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Published---March 5, 2008
The Daily Herald story (Feb. 24) about the Breathe Healthy Air Coalition's efforts on our behalf is very encouraging. Their actions to clean up the air in Illinois by alerting us to the adverse health effects of smoke from residential biomass burning (wood, leaves, yard waste etc), seeking a ban on wood burning, and proposing governmental financial incentives to convert indoor wood-burning fireplaces to gas or electric is to be commended.
It is an indisputable fact the air quality in the Chicago metropolitan, and the northeastern section of Illinois is unhealthy to humans and the environment because of fine particulate matter, noxious gases, carcinogens, greenhouse gases and poisonous chemicals spewed out by coal burning electric power plants, manufacturing industries, trucks, cars, fireplaces, wood stoves and residential open burning.
Because of the state's poor air quality, in April 2008, Illinois must submit a state implementation plan (SIP) to the U.S. EPA in accordance with the Clean Air Act describing how Illinois will clean up the air in 12 counties (including Lake, Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Kane and Will) that have fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 -- fine solids and aerosols 2.5 microns in diameter and less suspended in air) concentrations above the acceptable standard.
Fine particulate matter comes from many sources. One is the smoke from residential open burning of leaves, yard waste and yes, the beloved recreational campfire. Short-term exposure of humans to fine particulate matter has been linked to death from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, increase in heart attacks, strokes, and in the severity of asthma attacks. Long-term exposure to PM 2.5 has been linked to slow lung function growth in children and increased risk of dying from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Illinois did a great job of protecting residents from the deleterious effects of breathing second-hand tobacco smoke by banning smoking in many areas. Hopefully, they will follow their good works by including a ban on residential open burning in the State Implementation Plan due to the U.S. EPA in April. Such a ban would protect Illinois residents from the detrimental and lethal effects of breathing the toxic smoke (smoke that contains the same carcinogens and toxic substances as tobacco smoke) from residential campfires, and leaf burning that occur right next-door.
Alexa Chun, R.Ph., Ph.D
Gurnee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)