Coalition Against Wood Burning

Coalition Against Wood Burning

(***This site is a work in progress as there is so much more to add!***)

New organization helping us to fight woodsmoke.

The International Coalition Against Wood Burning

Some excerpts from this new website are:

A site dedicated to ending wood burning and the health and environmental effects it causes.

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THE ONLY WISE BURNING IS NO BURNING

Much has been published by wood burning appliance makers and forestry that might lead one to believe that wood burning is safe. Not so!

There is no such thing as 'good' smoke. All smoke carries particulate matter that can be drawn deep into the lungs to cause severe damage. If you can smell smoke then you are inhaling these particulates and the damage has begun. You cannot escape the wood smoke that makes its way into your home through ventilation systems and even minute spaces in doors and windows. No air cleaner will clear the air and make it safe to breathe.

We all need to work on this important issue and we need to do it now!

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Wood smoke pollution and your health

For those that think that doctors are lax in speaking out on the wood smoke issue and its harmful effects on our health and environment, here are 3 prominent doctors who tell it like it is.

Please pass this on to your municipalities and governmental agencies, many of which have no idea of the seriousness of living next to someone who burns and releases the toxins into our air.

With gratitude to:

Dr. Jim Markos, medical lung specialist (Australian Lung Foundation)

Dr. Sverre Vedal of the University of Washington

Dr. Michael Aizen from the Australian Medical Association

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaxSgglRpLY
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Effects of Wood Smoke

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are produced in abundance when you burn wood.
"They are primarily formed by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing fuels such as wood, coal, diesel, fat, or tobacco. Tar also contains PAHs. Since human civilization relies so heavily on combustion, PAHs are inevitably linked to our energy production. In this sense, PAH can be thought of as marker molecules as their abundance can be directly proportional to combustion processes in the region and therefore directly related to air quality. Different types of combustion yield different distributions of PAHs."� Wikipedia�

The EPA estimates that the lifetime cancer risk from wood stove smoke is twelve times greater than that from an equal volume of second hand tobacco smoke. (The Health Effects of Wood Smoke, Washington State Department of Ecology)

"Burning two cords of wood produces the same amount of mutagenic particles as: Driving 13 gasoline powered cars 10,000 miles each at 20 miles/gallon. These figures indicate that the worst contribution that an individual is likely to make to the mutagenicity of the air is using a wood stove for heating, followed by driving a diesel car." ( Dr. Joellen Lewtas, Contribution of Source Emissions of the Mutagenicity of Ambient Urban Air Particles, U.S. EPA, #91-131.6, 1991 )
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This site is a gathering place for people around the world to come together to help clear our planet of wood smoke pollution.

To join us, send a comment or suggestion, please send an email to Shirley.

E-mail---s.brandie@sympatico.ca---for more information.

http://CoalitionAgainstWoodBurning.com
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Webmaster comment: Congrats on your new website and we welcome your organization.