Where there's smoke, there's trouble

Where there's smoke, there's trouble

Excerpted from: Burlington County Times February 13, 2011
By: JO CIAVAGLIA

Where there is wood smoke, there is fire - as well as invisible toxins you could be inhaling.

A little soot exposure probably isn't harmful to most people, pulmonologists say, but a new Danish-led study suggests regular exposure could damage DNA.
Local doctors call the findings interesting, though the implications in the United States are unclear since wood-burning stoves and fireplaces are generally used only a few months of the year.

Short-term health effects of wood-smoke particles on people with airway problems are well-known, the doctors said, as are other potential health hazards such as carbon-monoxide gas buildup, which is also invisible and dangerous.

A decade ago, Dr. Ira Horowitz, a pulmonologist with Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, treated six patients whose respiratory illness was triggered by a major forest fire in Florida. A few drove through the area where the fire occurred, but others were bothered when winds carried the smoke hundreds of miles into South Jersey, Horowitz said.

"There is clearly a hazard with this," said Dr. Sandeep Dhand, chief pulmonologist at Holy Redeemer Medical Center in Abington, Pa. "It's a problem all around."
Wood-smoke particles are the fine powder containing mostly carbon, left after wood is burned.

Long-term exposure increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to equal that of a cigarette smoker, Dhand said. Recent medical literature has found that smoke from burning solid fuels like wood worsens respiratory diseases.
But since fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are used mostly during the fall and winter in most parts of the U.S., Dhand said wood-smoke particle exposure is more limited so it likely presents a lower lung cancer risk.

But some doctors said the latest study appearing last week in the American Chemical Society's journal, Chemical Research in Toxicology, raises new questions about potential long-term exposure. The study found the particles may cause negative health effects.

Considerable scientific evidence has linked inhaling fine particles of air pollution from car exhausts and coal-fired electric power plants and other sources to respiratory problems, cancer and heart disease, but little information exists about the same fine particles associated with burning wood.

In the study, scientists analyzed and compared airborne wood-smoke particles from the center of a Denmark village, where most residents used wood stoves, with a neighboring rural area with few wood stoves, as well as to pure wood-smoke particles collected from a wood stove.

Airborne particles in the village and pure wood-smoke particles tended to be the most potentially dangerous size - small enough to be inhaled into the deepest part of the lungs, where they could cause disease. Scientists also showed that the tiny particles damaged DNA when tested on human cells.

The scientists further found that wood-smoke particle matter contained higher levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which include "probable" human carcinogens. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are chemicals formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage or other substances, such as tobacco and charbroiled meat.

The wood-smoke particles were found to be as harmful as the small particles created by car exhaust and coal-burning plants, the study found.
About half of the world uses solid biomass fuels such as wood and coal for indoor heating and cooking. A number of studies have associated indoor solid fuel combustion with health problems, including low infant birth weight, and lung and eye problems in adults.

The American Lung Association warns that burning wood emits harmful toxins, such as dioxin, arsenic and formaldehyde, and fine particulates into the air that can worsen breathing problems and lead to heart and lung disease.

In 2008, the lung organization recommended replacing wood stoves manufactured before 1995 with ones certified by the Environmental Protection Agency that meet stricter emission standards. Modern wood stoves also burn off less particulate matter than older stoves.

The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching a representative with the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, the North American trade group for manufacturers, distributors and specialty retailers of all types of hearth appliances, fuels and accessories, including stoves and fireplace inserts.

But statistics on the group's website show a steady and, in some cases, dramatic decline in popularity of wood-burning equipment in the United States.
Shipments of fireplaces, free-standing wood stoves and inserts declined about 30 percent from a high of 795,767 in 1999 to 235,647 in 2009. Pellet stove and insert shipments showed a pattern of dramatic one-year increases and decreases over the last decade, but most recently experienced a 67 percent decrease between 2008 and 2009.

Air quality indoors can be worse than outdoors in the winter since people spend more time inside. Homes tend to be sealed up and, over time, pollutants can become concentrated, said Dr. Chris Christensen, a pulmonologist at Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania. "Those conditions, where the airways are irritable on a good day, are made worse when it's indoors," Christensen said. "The idea that these could potentially be carcinogenic is something we never thought of being an issue. It's fascinating."

Currently there is no way to test for the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in wood-smoke particulate, so "it's a risk hanging out there," Christensen said. The potential long-term effects of hydrocarbons in wood-smoke particulate could possibly be the next asbestos situation, where the harmful health effects of exposure don't appear until decades later, Christensen said.
"I'm glad they are bringing attention to it," he added.


Source: The Wood Smoke Activist Network
April 2011 Newsletter
Web site: http://WoodBurnerSmoke.net

Earth Hour and Woodsmoke Awareness

Earth Hour and Woodsmoke Awareness

Earth hour World-Wide begins in a few weeks on March 26th.. Communities celebrating earth hour will focus on ways that we as citizens of the earth can protect our fragile environment by becoming educated and informed about the part we play in making ours a better, healthier world in which to live. We, and our environment, can also be healthier if the air we breathe is Woodsmoke-free too.

We embrace with pride new ideas to revitalize, enhance and renew our communities. We wisely acknowledge the fact that every step we take toward healthier Woodsmoke –free neighbourhoods also reflects our desire to better not only our own community but those world-wide. By achieving those goals and becoming empowered we too can encourage others to do the same.

Turning out the lights for an hour symbolically represents our global connection with each other, linking us profoundly as a united force. Our hope is for a better world in which to live and raise our families. If we turn out the lights for an hour, only to light up a Woodburning back yard fire pit, chimenea, outdoor fireplace, fire ring or other Woodburning device, we are absolutely defeating the purpose of Earth Hour. We then are taking part in destroying our health, air, environment, earth and communities. By allowing Woodsmoke to harm and destroy our life we are not protecting Mother Earth. Woodsmoke is a deadly silent killer taking away our breath, health, our quality of life and harming our fragile environment.

Community leaders must immediately become informed and aware of the toxic dangers we face from all outdoor open air burning in our respective neighbourhoods. All biomass burning destroys our air, making us ill, suffer and die from Woodsmoke-related illness. Millions die world-wide from Woodsmoke-related diseases.

Globally, we are aware of the impact of Tobacco smoking. Millions of lives were lost due to Tobacco related diseases. Woodsmoke is even worse for our health than tobacco smoke. Many of the same cancer causing chemicals found in Tobacco are also in Woodsmoke. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) when inhaled goes deeply into our lungs causing irreparable damage.

Woodsmoke and Woodburning are destroying our world. Scientists and doctors concur that Woodsmoke is killing us. Honour the role you play as a good steward of our Earth. Speak- up and take pro-active action to see that all outdoor open air burning (via a by-law) is prohibited in every community. Demand that regulations be implemented to phase out the use of Woodburning stoves, pellet stoves, Woodburning fireplaces, OWBs (outdoor woodboilers) and all biomass burning. New homes codes must exclude all Woodburning devices.

Make every hour Earth Hour when it comes to ending Woodburning. Protect your earth, health, community and most of all, your global family from the horrors of Woodsmoke Pollution. Make your voice heard. Speak up and fight for your life. Everyone deserves the right and common decency to breathe healthy air Woodsmoke-free. End destruction of the air we breathe…by ending Woodsmoke in 2011.

Author-Linda Baker Beaudin

Wood Smoke and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Wood Smoke and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Wood smoke pollution is blanketing our nation with its caustic fumes, depriving citizens of their property rights to use and enjoy their property smoke-free. And it is not just a nuisance--it is a severe public health hazard. Asthma is epidemic and is the number one reason for school absenteeism. How can it be that while tobacco smoke is now banished from most bars and restaurants, nothing is being done about wood smoke? It is chemically similar to tobacco smoke, but is far more concentrated and travels farther. Yet despite indoor smoking bans, our public officials are not protecting public health. They are "selling out" to lobbyists from the wood burning industry, rather than upholding our basic right to breathe clean air.

Wood smoke is implicated not only in asthma attacks and heart attacks, but in premature death in people of all ages. It is especially harmful to children and those with heart or lung disease and other disabilities such as autism and diabetes. Wood smoke, in fact, when it interferes with the ability of citizens with disabilities to use public spaces, may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This civil rights legislation guarantees people with disabilities, such as asthma, "access" to public spaces, including city parks, streets and sidewalks. An Iowa District Court in 2003, in fact, ordered the town of Mallard to stop allowing wood burning, because wood smoke presented a "physical barrier" to a small child with severe asthma that prevented her from using public spaces.

Therefore it is up to us, who are the most bothered by wood smoke, to begin a bold new campaign based on why wood smoke violates ADA Guidelines. We must talk it up at every opportunity and let our city governments, mayors, state and national legislators, schools and local health departments know that:

1. Wood smoke presents a physical barrier to people with disabilities like asthma, because it prevents access to public spaces like city streets, parks and sidewalks.
2. That residential wood smoke from outdoor recreational fires, indoor fireplaces and restaurant wood grills are a substantial source of fine particle pollution, which is a health hazard for all citizens.
3. With increasing disabilities, especially in children, it is paramount that cities adopt ADA guidelines that remove wood smoke as a barrier to the use of public spaces by all citizens.
In addition, email the national "Access Board" about the need for eradicating wood smoke barriers for those with disabilities: http://www.access-board.gov/transit/)>http://www.access-board.gov/tran.


To join with others toward this goal, please contact info@takebacktheair.com.
Julie Mellum
President, Take Back the Air www.takebacktheair.com
Minneapolis, MN

Source: The Wood Smoke Activist
January 2011 Newsletter
web site: http://WoodBurnerSmoke.net