The impact of wood smoke on children, neighborhoods
By David Pepper Excerpted from: Napa Valley Register (California, USA)
Posted: 05/30/2010
Though the recent freezing weather may seem like the worst time to call a wood-burning ban, the scientific evidence documenting the harm caused by wood smoke pollution justifies such restrictions.
As a physician, I know all too well the health impacts caused by toxic smoke. Breathing these particles can literally shorten life and send our most vulnerable residents to the emergency room. Wood smoke contains harmful microscopic particles that, when inhaled, enter directly into the lung and bloodstream. Once there, they damage cells, exacerbate asthma and cause lung and heart disease. For asthmatic children, breathing wood smoke can lead to immediate harm, including asthma attacks and respiratory distress.
A recent study by the California Air Resources Board reported that wood smoke can cause a 10 percent increase of hospital admissions for respiratory problems among children, who are at most risk since their lungs are still developing. Exposure to wood smoke may also reduce lung function and reduce the blood’s ability to clot properly. And it doesn’t take much; one fireplace or wood-burning stove can produce levels of smoke in a neighborhood that exceed federal air quality standards and affect all the neighbors. According to the California Air Resources Board, up to 70 percent of smoke from chimneys can re-enter neighboring residences, exposing neighbors to toxic smoke. While we have effectively banned tobacco smoke from most indoor places, there is no way to avoid an equally damaging smoke right at home. Unfortunately, without a stronger wood-burning regulation, community health suffers.
It is important to note that the current regulation allows an exemption for wood burning when no other source of heat is available.
While some may not see it this way, in actuality it is the wood smoke, not the wood burning regulation, that is invasive. There are an estimated 935,000 residents in the Bay Area who suffer from asthma, including 200,000 children and an additional 300,000 who struggle to breathe from emphysema, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. When these people have to breathe wood smoke pollution, they struggle even more.
The American Lung Association routinely receives calls from citizens all around the Bay Area who simply cannot get away from clouds of pollution in their own neighborhoods. Many have young children with asthma who need medical treatment due to this exposure. Some of these families have sold their houses and moved to areas with less wood smoke pollution.
Are these health impacts really worth the ambiance of a fire? Fireplaces are inefficient heaters, often taking out more warm air than they produce. Cleaner burning alternatives are available to enjoy the warmth and glow without the smoke, including gas, electric and pellet stoves, which are now designed to look just like their wood-burning brethren.
The American Lung Association repeatedly has given failing grades for air quality to several counties in the Bay Area due to high levels of particle pollution, of which wood smoke is a primary source. We know we can do better. Indeed, air districts such as Sacramento that have adopted wood-burning prohibitions have experienced a reduction in these harmful particles.
Hopefully, after understanding the harm caused by wood smoke pollution, local residents will think twice before lighting their fireplaces and wood stoves. Many already have. By choosing to hold off and use cleaner alternatives to heat our homes, we make it easier for our smallest and most vulnerable residents to breathe.
We’re trying to make our neighborhoods healthier and prevent disease. Won’t you help us?
Dr. Pepper is a family practice physician and American Lung Association volunteer who teaches family medicine
Credit to:
The Wood Smoke Activist
June 2010 Newsletter
Educating the world about the health and climate impacts of wood smoke and combustion aerosols.
Editor: Shirley Brandie
Ontario Director of Canadian Clean Air Alliance http://canadiancleanairalliance.ca
Web site: http://WoodBurnerSmoke.net
Showing posts with label california. Show all posts
Showing posts with label california. Show all posts
Proposed Wood Burning Ban-San Francsco Bay Area
Monday, January 21, 2008
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
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Proposal would ban new wood-burning fireplaces-Southern California
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
San Jose Mercury News
Proposal to clean SoCal air would ban new wood-burning fireplaces
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/01/2007 05:36:22 AM PDT
LOS ANGELES- Wood-burning fireplaces would be banned in all new homes in much of Southern California under an anti-smog plan given initial approval by regional air quality regulators Friday.
The plan to help reduce harmful pollution and meet federal emissions standards also would bar wood-fueled blazes in all fireplaces on especially smoggy days.
The board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, meeting in Diamond Bar, approved a 2007 update of its regional anti-smog plan. In addition to regulating fireplaces, the wide-ranging plan seeks to reduce soot from diesel engines and to curb ozone smog levels in order to meet federal Clean Air Act standards by 2024.
Its measures involve commercial and residential developments, industrial facilities and such common equipment as restaurant charbroilers. The AQMD said the plan is expected to cost $2.3 billion annually, but benefits, mainly from reduced health effects, will amount to $14.6 billion annually.
The California Air Resources Board will consider the overall plan later this month. If it is approved it must then go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval. Another AQMD vote is scheduled for September to finalize the fireplace regulations.
There are an estimated 1.9 million homes with fireplaces in Southern California out of about 5 million total housing units, regulators said. Air district staffers say a daily reduction of 192 tons of nitrogen oxides, an ingredient in harmful particulate pollution, is needed across the region to meet the federal requirements, and that 7 tons of that could come from restrictions on fireplaces.
The fireplace ban for new homes would cover Los Angeles, Orange and portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. There also could be about 20 days a year when the smog is so thick and the air so unhealthy that burning wood in all fireplaces would be prohibited, the AQMD estimated.
Regulators say unsafe levels of fine particulate pollution are responsible for 5,400 premature deaths and 2,400 hospitalizations a year in Southern California—leaving no target, including fireplaces, too small.
"Everyone must do their fair share to clean the air, from the largest business to the individual consumer," said Barry Wallerstein, the AQMD's executive officer. "Wallerstein said.
Proposal to clean SoCal air would ban new wood-burning fireplaces
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/01/2007 05:36:22 AM PDT
LOS ANGELES- Wood-burning fireplaces would be banned in all new homes in much of Southern California under an anti-smog plan given initial approval by regional air quality regulators Friday.
The plan to help reduce harmful pollution and meet federal emissions standards also would bar wood-fueled blazes in all fireplaces on especially smoggy days.
The board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, meeting in Diamond Bar, approved a 2007 update of its regional anti-smog plan. In addition to regulating fireplaces, the wide-ranging plan seeks to reduce soot from diesel engines and to curb ozone smog levels in order to meet federal Clean Air Act standards by 2024.
Its measures involve commercial and residential developments, industrial facilities and such common equipment as restaurant charbroilers. The AQMD said the plan is expected to cost $2.3 billion annually, but benefits, mainly from reduced health effects, will amount to $14.6 billion annually.
The California Air Resources Board will consider the overall plan later this month. If it is approved it must then go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval. Another AQMD vote is scheduled for September to finalize the fireplace regulations.
There are an estimated 1.9 million homes with fireplaces in Southern California out of about 5 million total housing units, regulators said. Air district staffers say a daily reduction of 192 tons of nitrogen oxides, an ingredient in harmful particulate pollution, is needed across the region to meet the federal requirements, and that 7 tons of that could come from restrictions on fireplaces.
The fireplace ban for new homes would cover Los Angeles, Orange and portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. There also could be about 20 days a year when the smog is so thick and the air so unhealthy that burning wood in all fireplaces would be prohibited, the AQMD estimated.
Regulators say unsafe levels of fine particulate pollution are responsible for 5,400 premature deaths and 2,400 hospitalizations a year in Southern California—leaving no target, including fireplaces, too small.
"Everyone must do their fair share to clean the air, from the largest business to the individual consumer," said Barry Wallerstein, the AQMD's executive officer. "Wallerstein said.
Los Altos (CA) --No new wood burning fireplaces law
Published on December 24, 2003
Los Altos (CA) Town Crier
Tougher pollution laws may squelch holiday fireplace traditions
By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer
Tougher federal pollution standards could mean the end of one Christmas Day holiday tradition for some Santa Clara County residents - air district officials are urging residents to refrain from gathering around the glow of a cozy, crackling fire this season in order to keep air pollution at an acceptable level.
Officials said they anticipate issuing between seven to 10 "Spare the Air Tonight" advisories asking the public to voluntarily refrain from burning wood and driving between now and the end of January to meet the new air quality requirements.
This season's frequent rain has helped flush the atmosphere of pollutants. The air district has not had to issue advisories yet, a spokeswoman said Friday.
Wood burning and driving are the two major causes of air pollution in the winter time, especially during the holidays when people tend to gather and light a fire, a spokeswoman said.
A district report says burning wood causes up to 50 percent of the air pollution in Santa Clara County on some days. Every 1,000 woodburning fireplaces produces about 5 tons of pollution during the winter, she said. There are about 17,000 wood-burning fireplaces in the county.
Experts compared wood smoke to tobacco smoke. Wood smoke is toxic and especially dangerous for children and those with respiratory problems, said Jack Broadbent, air district CEO. "The worst kind of air pollution is created by burning wood. There is abundant health and scientific data on the dangers of exposure to the tiny particulates in wood smoke."
In Los Altos, the city introduced a wood-burning fireplace ban in 2001 after a resident allergic to wood smoke complained about the quality of air in her neighborhood.
As a result, no new wood-burning fireplaces may be built in Los Altos. The law is intended to reduce the toxic air pollutants.
http://www.latc.com/2003/12/24/news/news04.html
Los Altos (CA) Town Crier
Tougher pollution laws may squelch holiday fireplace traditions
By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer
Tougher federal pollution standards could mean the end of one Christmas Day holiday tradition for some Santa Clara County residents - air district officials are urging residents to refrain from gathering around the glow of a cozy, crackling fire this season in order to keep air pollution at an acceptable level.
Officials said they anticipate issuing between seven to 10 "Spare the Air Tonight" advisories asking the public to voluntarily refrain from burning wood and driving between now and the end of January to meet the new air quality requirements.
This season's frequent rain has helped flush the atmosphere of pollutants. The air district has not had to issue advisories yet, a spokeswoman said Friday.
Wood burning and driving are the two major causes of air pollution in the winter time, especially during the holidays when people tend to gather and light a fire, a spokeswoman said.
A district report says burning wood causes up to 50 percent of the air pollution in Santa Clara County on some days. Every 1,000 woodburning fireplaces produces about 5 tons of pollution during the winter, she said. There are about 17,000 wood-burning fireplaces in the county.
Experts compared wood smoke to tobacco smoke. Wood smoke is toxic and especially dangerous for children and those with respiratory problems, said Jack Broadbent, air district CEO. "The worst kind of air pollution is created by burning wood. There is abundant health and scientific data on the dangers of exposure to the tiny particulates in wood smoke."
In Los Altos, the city introduced a wood-burning fireplace ban in 2001 after a resident allergic to wood smoke complained about the quality of air in her neighborhood.
As a result, no new wood-burning fireplaces may be built in Los Altos. The law is intended to reduce the toxic air pollutants.
http://www.latc.com/2003/12/24/news/news04.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)