The Dangers of Smoke from Woodstoves

The headline was worthy of Fox News, proclaiming dramatically, “Wood Stoves May Cause Cancer, Heart Disease.”

Wait just a minute, that headline was a recent Fox News headline about a study from Copenhagen University in Denmark. The article quotes lead author Steffen Loft, who notes, “In human cells that were exposed to the [wood smoke] particles, substantial DNA damage and mutation took place. It was comparable to the effects of particles given off by traffic.”

Particles were collected from the air in a village with many operating wood stoves and from a village where stove use is low, as well as from wood stoves burning efficiently (high oxygen) and less efficiently (low oxygen). The effects of the particles were tested on cultured human lung and immune cells.

The findings: “[Particulate matter from wood smoke] produces high levels of free radicals, DNA damage as well as inflammatory and oxidative stress response gene expression.” In other words, the wood smoke particles caused more cellular and DNA damage than air without the particles, and these molecular changes could lead to heart disease and cancer.

We at Families for Clean Air were not surprised by the findings, since wood smoke toxicity has been documented extensively. However, we were happily surprised by the prominence of the finding on the Fox News website. (It also merited a brief mention on the website of the LA Times, another mainstream news source.)

The harmful effects of wood smoke pollution are becoming impossible to ignore.

The New Social Stigma of Wood Burning

A round of applause, please, for reporter Christina S. N. Lewis.

“The fireplace, once a point of pride, is now seen as an environmental hazard,” concluded her recent New York Times article (“The Love Affair With the Fireplace Cools”, Jan. 20, 2011). Continuing, Ms. Lewis notes, “Among those who aspire to be environmentally responsible, [the fireplace] is joining the ranks of bottled water and big houses.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. This article represents an encouraging paradigm shift, one that is fully supported by Families for Clean Air. Notably, articles in the Home sections of newspapers often extol the ‘pleasures’ of a roaring fire without mentioning the toxic effects of wood smoke on human health and the environment.

Specifically, the NYT article notes that the American Lung Association “strongly advises people not to use the traditional fireplace” because of the irritating effects of the particulate matter, carcinogens, and gases in wood smoke. It also points out that fireplaces and wood stoves are “major contributors to particulate-matter air pollution in much of the United States.”

We disagree with the article on one point: EPA-certified wood stoves are cited as one way to make wood burning more “environmentally friendly.” However, as we point out in our published response to the article, such stoves still produce far more particulate pollution than appliances that burn natural gas. Further, the actual performance of EPA-certified wood stoves, in terms of particulate pollution, is poorer than expected compared to results obtained in laboratory conditions. In fact, such stoves tend to produce more pollution after years of use than they do when they are new.

Nonetheless, this article chronicles what we hope is the start of a movement away from fireplace use, wood burning, and air pollution towards cleaner and healthier air.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Pollution

Out here in Northern California, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s (BAAQMD’s) winter “Spare the Air” campaign is really catching on. The agency has a new TV commercial, and runs ads asking people to “Check Before You Burn,” on the sides of buses. We even hear people in restaurants talking about not burning on spare the air days.

Unfortunately, the take away message that many people seem to get from BAAQMD’s ad campaign is that wood burning is okay, except on those days during the winter when an alert is called. The information that wood smoke is hazardous to everyone’s health, and that smoky fires are banned year round, is not getting through to the public. [click to continue…]

Soot is a Major Factor in Global Warming

Soot from burning wood and fossil fuels not only harms the health of humans, it is harming our planet as well.

Soot, also called black carbon, is a major factor in global warming, concludes Stanford’s Mark Z. Jacobson, leader of the university’s Atmosphere and Energy program and a professor of civil and environmental engineering. See his recent report in the Journal of Geophysical Research here, or read David Perlman’s San Francisco Chronicle story about Jacobson’s finding’s here.

Everyone Deserves to Breathe Clean Air

Julie Mellum, president of Take Back the Air, reminds us, “Everyone deserves to breathe clean air as often as possible—not just when the smog is so bad that there is no alternative but to ban the huge source of fine particulate pollution that caused the elevated smog levels in the first place.” Read more here.

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