squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Middle of a cold snowy night and Mr. wood stove is keeping us toasty and comfortable. 
Loving wood heat
- Thread starter squatting dog
- Start date
A short time ago, the British government saw these stoves as a good choice of heating as they use a renewable resource (wood). Now it seems they are a major source of air pollution and are being discouraged.
I find this hard to understand as mankind has been burning wood since fire was first invented. Why has it suddenly become a problem now?
I find this hard to understand as mankind has been burning wood since fire was first invented. Why has it suddenly become a problem now?
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Lewkat
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
That's nonsense. Burning wood in the stove or a conventional fireplace does not pollute the air.
Pappy
Living the Dream
We heated with wood for several years and my only complaint, besides removing ashes, it was too warm at times. Then went to a pellet stove, but that didn’t produce the heat of a wood stove.
Its simply the best heat there is.
Warms a bod thru and thru
After tending roofs and shoveling snow all day, that fire was so welcoming
We have an Earth Stove up at the cabin
Big box
Stoke it at night, damp it down
Cozy
all night
aaand......its better to look at, than a furnace
Heh, if we didn't damp it down, by morning we were tempted to run outside, tearing our clothes off
and fall into the snow, making snow angels
Pappy
Living the Dream
I know that feeling Gary. Sometimes, when it warmed up for a day or two, doors and windows open to let the heat out.
Ruth n Jersey
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern New Jersey
If I had a fireplace or stove I wouldn't get anything done. Nothing nicer then watching the flames and listen to it crackle. Maybe add one of those hooks to simmer a pot of beans, better than a crock pot.
Fireplace in our home. Lived here 21 years and never lit a fire. And... don't plan to. Grew up with wood heat in my very early years. What a mess! Wood stoves have been SO improved since those days. Still... will rely on electricity. And, as with Texas, may well regret that one day.
Waiting on Engineer's plans and specs on our new Maintenance Operations Center at the golf course. We've specified the main heat source to be wood. Have so many trees at the course and are always cleaning up from wind, etc. Never a want for wood. Staff can cut and split firewood when having spare time during off months. Will be one of the large units that sits outside the facility, feeding ducted heat into the building. The old facility has a potbelly stove that has burned tons of wood over the past 40 years. If it gets really cold, someone has to come in about midnight and add wood. Won't burn all night. The new units will burn 24 hours or longer without the need for more wood.
Waiting on Engineer's plans and specs on our new Maintenance Operations Center at the golf course. We've specified the main heat source to be wood. Have so many trees at the course and are always cleaning up from wind, etc. Never a want for wood. Staff can cut and split firewood when having spare time during off months. Will be one of the large units that sits outside the facility, feeding ducted heat into the building. The old facility has a potbelly stove that has burned tons of wood over the past 40 years. If it gets really cold, someone has to come in about midnight and add wood. Won't burn all night. The new units will burn 24 hours or longer without the need for more wood.
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
We've had a big outdoor wood furnace for years. Our house is total electric, and even with reasonable electric costs, our electric bills were very high the first Winter we lived here. We have 40 acres of dense forest, and I can easily find a dozen, or more large dead trees every year to salvage for firewood. I save hundreds/year doing so, plus all the exercise in getting that wood helps keep me fit.
fuzzybuddy
SF VIP
- Location
- The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I thought having a fire place to heat my place would be neat. The fire, the crackle, and the aroma of burning wood is appealing. Then I saw the wood pile my neighbor, who HAD a wood burning stove. It was an enormous stack of wood. It was bigger than his house. It takes about 2-4 acres of forest to heat an average home. So there are 7,500,000,000 of us, you do the math. Well, he passed away, and the first thing his widow did was to get rid of the wood burning stove. She wasn't about to be hauling in wood all day long. And a cord of wood was costing her over $300.
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Not sure where someone came up with 2-4 acres of wood to heat a home.
My house is around 1200-1300 sq ft. and I heat it all winter entirely on the wood pile pictured. (I rarely need the electric backup, only on day's I'll be gone out somewhere).
That wood is the end result of 8-10 logs. Part of which was deadfall, and a few that were green. (I don't see 2-4 acres there).
I have 38 acres of land and I'm sure there is more tree's here now than when I built here 16 years ago. If anything, I'd call it a great renewable source.
A good stove makes the difference
The old pot bellies, or fireplaces ate wood
Around the '70s (maybe earlier) things changed
Earth stoves came to be
Tight
Efficient
Then many others
The earth stove at the cabin would consume around a cord of wood a month
Casting out heat 24/7
Never let it go out
Fed it about ever six or eight hours
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
I like our outdoor wood furnace....Bryan/300kBTU's. We have 40 acres of dense hardwood forest, and I can easily find a dozen large dead trees every year to harvest. On average, I probably use between 6 to 8 cords of wood per year, and that gives me some serious exercise to help keep fit. I paid $3600, 17 years ago, to have this furnace installed, and it saves us at about 7 or 8 hundred dollars/yr. on the electric bill....somewhere between $12K to $15K, over these years. The furnace has paid for itself, paid for the chainsaws, paid for the log splitter, and a good portion of the tractor price, over the years. At the rate I'm cutting down our forest, I figure I'll have these 40 acres cleared in about 135 years. If a person has to Buy their wood, that costs more than it's worth, but I have an endless free supply, just waiting for me to go get it. Our house is about 2400 sq. ft., over a full basement/garage. When I have this furnace running, the way I have it ducted, it keeps the upstairs in the low 70's, the basement and garage areas in the mid 60's. Even if we were to have a power outage, I have a 6500 watt generator which supplies enough electricity to run this furnace, and give us lights, TV., run the well for water, keep the fridge running, etc. Living in the boondocks is kind of nice, IF a person prepares for what nature might throw at us.
Homeschoolie
Member
- Location
- West Coast, USA
From Over 40 years of research by medical research hospitals/universities, numerous world health and environmental agencies from multiple countries and numerous independent scientists around the world. This is just some of the research. There is to much research to post all of it.
Breathing wood smoke from one woodstove fire is the same as smoking 800 cigarettes per minute Fireplaces and All types of outdoor burning are, for obvious reasons, exponentially more!
The inhalable particle pollution from one woodstove is equivalent to the particle pollution emitted from 3,000 gas furnaces producing the same amount of heat per unit. Woodburning is the least efficient and most polluting form of heat. It costs more per heat unit then all other forms of heat.
Fine particulate matter (microscopic wood chips from wood burning) (PM 2.5), is the leading cause of global pollution-related mortality.
76% of wildfires are human caused not lightening. 53% of lives, acres, structures lost and cost to fight are from human caused fires. All wood burning aggravated/caused disease costs all of us billions in medical costs, billions in taxes to fight human caused structure/wildfires and increased home/medical insurance premiums. We all pay for this problem.
Wood stove smoke is 27 times more harmful then cigarette smoke. Fireplaces and outdoor burning is exponentially worse.
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 or driving 2 diesel powered cars 10,000 miles each @ 30 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. Outdoor fires are exponentially worse! Composting, chipping, recycling, Propane recreation, cooking, campfires and electric meat smokers solve this problem!
Free radicals produced from wood smoke are chemically active for twenty minutes; tobacco smoke free radicals are chemically active for thirty seconds. Wood smoke free radicals attack our body’s cells and stress our immune systems up to forty times longer then tobacco smoke increasing our risk of ALL diseases and infections. Especially autoimmune diseases.
Signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory disease state associated with breathing difficulty and sputum, have been found in Egyptian mummies and in a 1,600-year-old Alaskan mummy. Notes one researcher, “COPD secondary to exposure to open wood fires is still an important cause of COPD in many countries, and has been a cause of COPD ever since fire was introduced for cooking, heating and recreating.” In the Western world, we tend to romanticize ancient practices, including burning wood. However, there is nothing romantic about hacking up mucus, coughing up blood, wheezing, being out of breath and premature death. People in developing countries in Asia, South America, and Africa who rely on burning continue to develop COPD at alarming rates. We are now!
Benzene found as a cause for Myleofibrosis which is closely related to and can turn into Leukemia. Benzene is plentiful in wood smoke.
1 in 2 deaths in the USA had COPD as a cause/contributor
Wood Burning Smoke kills 60,000 U.S. Citizens EVERY year; 3 million world wide.
Respiratory illness is largest killer of infants.
1 in 10 children have Asthma. Wood smoke is a contributor.
Infants who are exposed to wood smoke pollution early in life are 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Asthma by age 5.
Infants 17% increase in SIDS risk with wood smoke exposure.
80% of air pollution is residential indoor/outdoor wood burning; not traffic/industry.
Dioxin from smoke most toxic substance on earth.
Wood smoke triggers heart attacks, Asthma, COPD, Allergy etc. attacks. And aggravates, contributes to, many autoimmune diseases, Diabetes and others.
1 in 2 deaths in the USA had COPD as a cause/contributor but 1 in 2 are NOT cigarette smokers. 120,000 people die each year from COPD. 4 people die every minute. 550,000 hospitalizations per year, 16 million office visits per year, and $13 billion per year in medical costs, including home care. A 20-year study found that COPD patients are five times more likely to develop lung cancer. A recent study shows “At least 93 per cent of those who had COPD were not tobacco smokers,”. 23% of COPD occurs in age groups less than 40 years. It is not just an old persons disease. At least 12 million have undiagnosed COPD.
More people die from air pollution then car wrecks, fires and poisoning combined.
Tobacco use is illegal in public places, yet Lung Cancer is the most prevalent, hardest to detect early and treat type of Cancer.
It is the number one killer in the USA of all types of cancer.
It is the number 2 cause of death from all diseases in the US.
It kills more women then breast and cervical cancer combined. It costs billions of dollars yearly!
Wood smoke pollution particles are so small that they enter homes/schools/public buildings even with all the doors, windows, heat/ventilation closed.
The level of indoor air pollution is typically equal to 70% of the outdoor pollution level. Heat/AC/ventilation exhaust systems PULL smoke in!
Microscopic wood particles enter lung tissue and enter the blood stream causing several diseases including cancer.
Wood heating is the least efficient heat source; 53% efficient in perfect labratory controlled conditions. Less efficient in the real world. Most of the heat goes up the chimney with the smoke. The more dampered down (suffocated) the fire the more smoke and the more heat goes outside.
Not just short term intense exposure but also Long term exposure to low-levels of wood smoke increases the risk of all diseases.
The US Surgeon General: research shows there is no safe level of ambient wood smoke. Wood smoke is harmful to human health at all levels!
Latest census shows most who heat with wood can easily afford to pay for non-wood heat. Americans spend 2-5 thousand yearly just on pay-per-view, movie rental, cable/satellite TV, unlimited calling/texting cell phone plans etc. Cost Doesn't include equipment purchase. Does anyone Really need hundreds of TV channels? Unlimited calling/texting? Thousands spent yearly on fireworks, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, infomercial gimmicks, perfume, toxic chemical scented laundry/house cleaning/personal care products, hundred dollar fancy fingernails; closets, garages, homes, storage units stuffed full of stuff they buy and rarely or never look at or use.
Outdoor (chimineas, fire pits, campfires, yard debris, land clearing debris, meat smokers etc) wood burning does not save heating costs.
The US EPA warns that exposure to a fraction of a nanogram of PAH increases our risk of developing cancer.
Woodsmoke contains several carcinogens, including benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, formaldehyde. Burning 1 kg of wood in a modern heater produces more benzo[a]pyrene than the smoke from 27,000 cigarettes; more benzene and formaldehyde than the smoke of 6,000 cigarettes. Outdoor burning is exponentially worse! Including wood cooking and meat smokers!!!
Wood smoke can travel 700 miles and can stay near the ground up to 3 weeks. You dont need to smell smoke for it to harm health.
Burning wood is always unnecessary. Wearing long pants, shoes, polar fleece shirts. Using electric meat smokers/slow cookers/your oven and the smoke cooking oils Chefs use to create awesome smoked food, propane BBQ's, adding home insulation, caulking, plastic window film, numerous other inexpensive home weatherization techniques that pay for themselves first year heating cost savings. They also reduce summer cooling costs. Recycle, compost, chip, leave in less obvious location on property to decompose naturally (just a few weeks in our climate the pile size decreases dramatically. Enzymes can be added to hasten decomposition) Use the compost and wood chips instead of spending hundreds/thousands on bark, mulch,peat-moss, topsoil, weed poison every year. Propane Campfires, fire pits, fire bowls, chimineas, outdoor and indoor fireplaces can all make smores without killing people with wood smoke.
Breathing wood smoke from one woodstove fire is the same as smoking 800 cigarettes per minute Fireplaces and All types of outdoor burning are, for obvious reasons, exponentially more!
The inhalable particle pollution from one woodstove is equivalent to the particle pollution emitted from 3,000 gas furnaces producing the same amount of heat per unit. Woodburning is the least efficient and most polluting form of heat. It costs more per heat unit then all other forms of heat.
Fine particulate matter (microscopic wood chips from wood burning) (PM 2.5), is the leading cause of global pollution-related mortality.
76% of wildfires are human caused not lightening. 53% of lives, acres, structures lost and cost to fight are from human caused fires. All wood burning aggravated/caused disease costs all of us billions in medical costs, billions in taxes to fight human caused structure/wildfires and increased home/medical insurance premiums. We all pay for this problem.
Wood stove smoke is 27 times more harmful then cigarette smoke. Fireplaces and outdoor burning is exponentially worse.
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 or driving 2 diesel powered cars 10,000 miles each @ 30 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. Outdoor fires are exponentially worse! Composting, chipping, recycling, Propane recreation, cooking, campfires and electric meat smokers solve this problem!
Free radicals produced from wood smoke are chemically active for twenty minutes; tobacco smoke free radicals are chemically active for thirty seconds. Wood smoke free radicals attack our body’s cells and stress our immune systems up to forty times longer then tobacco smoke increasing our risk of ALL diseases and infections. Especially autoimmune diseases.
Signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory disease state associated with breathing difficulty and sputum, have been found in Egyptian mummies and in a 1,600-year-old Alaskan mummy. Notes one researcher, “COPD secondary to exposure to open wood fires is still an important cause of COPD in many countries, and has been a cause of COPD ever since fire was introduced for cooking, heating and recreating.” In the Western world, we tend to romanticize ancient practices, including burning wood. However, there is nothing romantic about hacking up mucus, coughing up blood, wheezing, being out of breath and premature death. People in developing countries in Asia, South America, and Africa who rely on burning continue to develop COPD at alarming rates. We are now!
Benzene found as a cause for Myleofibrosis which is closely related to and can turn into Leukemia. Benzene is plentiful in wood smoke.
1 in 2 deaths in the USA had COPD as a cause/contributor
Wood Burning Smoke kills 60,000 U.S. Citizens EVERY year; 3 million world wide.
Respiratory illness is largest killer of infants.
1 in 10 children have Asthma. Wood smoke is a contributor.
Infants who are exposed to wood smoke pollution early in life are 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Asthma by age 5.
Infants 17% increase in SIDS risk with wood smoke exposure.
80% of air pollution is residential indoor/outdoor wood burning; not traffic/industry.
Dioxin from smoke most toxic substance on earth.
Wood smoke triggers heart attacks, Asthma, COPD, Allergy etc. attacks. And aggravates, contributes to, many autoimmune diseases, Diabetes and others.
1 in 2 deaths in the USA had COPD as a cause/contributor but 1 in 2 are NOT cigarette smokers. 120,000 people die each year from COPD. 4 people die every minute. 550,000 hospitalizations per year, 16 million office visits per year, and $13 billion per year in medical costs, including home care. A 20-year study found that COPD patients are five times more likely to develop lung cancer. A recent study shows “At least 93 per cent of those who had COPD were not tobacco smokers,”. 23% of COPD occurs in age groups less than 40 years. It is not just an old persons disease. At least 12 million have undiagnosed COPD.
More people die from air pollution then car wrecks, fires and poisoning combined.
Tobacco use is illegal in public places, yet Lung Cancer is the most prevalent, hardest to detect early and treat type of Cancer.
It is the number one killer in the USA of all types of cancer.
It is the number 2 cause of death from all diseases in the US.
It kills more women then breast and cervical cancer combined. It costs billions of dollars yearly!
Wood smoke pollution particles are so small that they enter homes/schools/public buildings even with all the doors, windows, heat/ventilation closed.
The level of indoor air pollution is typically equal to 70% of the outdoor pollution level. Heat/AC/ventilation exhaust systems PULL smoke in!
Microscopic wood particles enter lung tissue and enter the blood stream causing several diseases including cancer.
Wood heating is the least efficient heat source; 53% efficient in perfect labratory controlled conditions. Less efficient in the real world. Most of the heat goes up the chimney with the smoke. The more dampered down (suffocated) the fire the more smoke and the more heat goes outside.
Not just short term intense exposure but also Long term exposure to low-levels of wood smoke increases the risk of all diseases.
The US Surgeon General: research shows there is no safe level of ambient wood smoke. Wood smoke is harmful to human health at all levels!
Latest census shows most who heat with wood can easily afford to pay for non-wood heat. Americans spend 2-5 thousand yearly just on pay-per-view, movie rental, cable/satellite TV, unlimited calling/texting cell phone plans etc. Cost Doesn't include equipment purchase. Does anyone Really need hundreds of TV channels? Unlimited calling/texting? Thousands spent yearly on fireworks, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, infomercial gimmicks, perfume, toxic chemical scented laundry/house cleaning/personal care products, hundred dollar fancy fingernails; closets, garages, homes, storage units stuffed full of stuff they buy and rarely or never look at or use.
Outdoor (chimineas, fire pits, campfires, yard debris, land clearing debris, meat smokers etc) wood burning does not save heating costs.
The US EPA warns that exposure to a fraction of a nanogram of PAH increases our risk of developing cancer.
Woodsmoke contains several carcinogens, including benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, formaldehyde. Burning 1 kg of wood in a modern heater produces more benzo[a]pyrene than the smoke from 27,000 cigarettes; more benzene and formaldehyde than the smoke of 6,000 cigarettes. Outdoor burning is exponentially worse! Including wood cooking and meat smokers!!!
Wood smoke can travel 700 miles and can stay near the ground up to 3 weeks. You dont need to smell smoke for it to harm health.
Burning wood is always unnecessary. Wearing long pants, shoes, polar fleece shirts. Using electric meat smokers/slow cookers/your oven and the smoke cooking oils Chefs use to create awesome smoked food, propane BBQ's, adding home insulation, caulking, plastic window film, numerous other inexpensive home weatherization techniques that pay for themselves first year heating cost savings. They also reduce summer cooling costs. Recycle, compost, chip, leave in less obvious location on property to decompose naturally (just a few weeks in our climate the pile size decreases dramatically. Enzymes can be added to hasten decomposition) Use the compost and wood chips instead of spending hundreds/thousands on bark, mulch,peat-moss, topsoil, weed poison every year. Propane Campfires, fire pits, fire bowls, chimineas, outdoor and indoor fireplaces can all make smores without killing people with wood smoke.
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
Based upon this lengthy dissertation, the California and Oregon wildfires in the past couple of years should have killed off millions of people.
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Guess this census hasn't been around the Ozarks much. Having lived on the West coast myself for a while, I'll forgive you for your ignorance.
Myself and many others around here don't have 100's of tv channels, unlimited calling/texting? (trac fone for us, pay as you go) spend thousands on fireworks, (never) alcohol, (you got me there) cigarettes, (some do... not us) gambling, (same as smoking) infomercial gimmicks, perfume (Ha ha that business would go belly up in a week here), toxic chemical scented laundry/house cleaning/personal care products, hundred dollar fancy fingernails (see above response to perfume); closets (there's a good one I don't have one closet), garages (sheds or carports), homes (very humble ones), storage units stuffed full of stuff they buy and rarely or never look at or use.
No, not everyone has the money to spend on huge energy bills.
Pecos
Well-known Member
- Location
- Washington State
A few years ago we had a major ice storm that took out our electric power for five days and closed off all of our local roads with fallen limbs. Our fireplace kept us warm and I was able to cook our meals and make coffee. I will admit that I got rather tired of dragging all that wood in from the woodpile at the back of the lot. Cleaning up the pots and pans afterwards was also time consuming.
But as an old fashioned backup system, using wood worked just fine. Staying warm, having hot coffee, and eating are pretty important. The wife thought that I was a reasonably good cook.
But as an old fashioned backup system, using wood worked just fine. Staying warm, having hot coffee, and eating are pretty important. The wife thought that I was a reasonably good cook.
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Same here. We had an ice storm that killed our power for 13 days. I was awful happy to have a bubbling spring to get water. as the generator ran out of gas on the 10th day, so well pump wouldn't work.
Now my wood stove is just an ugly box, but, the flat top meant we could cook on it besides providing all the heat we needed.
If there was a silver lining, I guess it was I didn't have to go far for next years wood.
Homeschoolie
Member
- Location
- West Coast, USA
Wood Smoke Damages the Eye: Cataract
Ocular morbidity and fuel use: an experience from India: January 2005
"Wood use was found to be an important factor in the aetiology of age dependent cataract" Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2005; 62 :66-69 © 2005 BMJ Publishing Group LtdA Saha ,P K Kulkarni ,A Shah ,M Patel and H N Saiyed
National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, India
ABSTRACT
The association of fuel use and ocular morbidity in a village in western India was investigated in a cross sectional prevalence survey involving 469 randomly selected subjects. All subjects were interviewed and underwent medical and ophthalmological examination. Wood use was found to be an important factor in the aetiology of age dependent cataract (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.03–4.34). When comparing wood only and LPG only users, the odds ratio was 3.47 (95% CI 1.05–11.50). In cases of eye irritation, coal use (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.13–3.68) and cattle dung use (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.35–2.47) were shown to be important factors, while male sex posed a lesser risk.
Keywords: biomass fuels; cataract; eye irritation
Copyright © 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd Correspondence to:
Dr A Saha, Research Officer (Medical), Occupational Medicine Division, National Institute of Occupational Health, Meghani Nagar, Ahmedabad-380 016, Gujarat, India; asimsaha2311@yahoo.co.in
Effect of smoke condensate on the physiological integrity and morphology of organ cultured rat lenses.
"Our present study indicates that metabolites of wood smoke condensate accumulate in the lens."Curr Eye Res. 1995 Apr;14(4):295-301. Rao CM, Qin C, Robison WG Jr, Zigler JS Jr.Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India.
ABSTRACT
Smoke, either from cigarette smoking or from burning of organic fuels, has been proposed to be a major environmental risk factor for a variety of human diseases. Recently, smoke was implicated in cataract, an eye lens opacification which is a major cause of blindness. We have undertaken a study to investigate the effect of wood smoke condensate on the physiological integrity and morphology of organ cultured lenses. Lenses in organ culture are metabolically active and have functional defense systems, thus they provide an appropriate model for studying effects of smoke condensate. Our present study indicates that metabolites of wood smoke condensate accumulate in the lens. The ability of the lenses to accumulate rubidium-86 (mimic of potassium) and choline from the medium is compromised by exposure to smoke condensate. Rubidium efflux studies suggest that the damage is primarily at the uptake level and does not involve an overall increase in membrane permeability. Protein leakage experiments corroborate this suggestion. Histological data show distinct morphological changes such as hyperplasia, hypertrophy and multilayering of epithelial cells.
PMID: 7606915 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Homeschoolie
Member
- Location
- West Coast, USA
Burning Issues is a project of Clean Air Revival, Inc., a non-profit 501 C3 organization dedicated to research and education on clean energy and the detrimental effects of particulate aerosol pollution.
Project Statement: Smoke from residential burning of wood, wood burning restaurants and outdoor burning of wood, crops and debris is permeating our neighborhoods. This burning results in high ground level concentrations of toxic air pollution. Millions of people are becoming ill from these emissions and some are dying. Awareness and education are the key elements to the abatement of this source of deadly fine particulate pollution in our communities. Please take the time to read these informative fact sheets.
Particulate pollution is the most important contaminant in our air. ...we know that when particle levels go up, people die. A number of studies also show changes in inflammatory markers in the blood, which are risk factors for heart attack." Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health, E Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2002
"The largest single source of outdoor fine particles (PM2.5) entering into our homes in many American cities is our neighbor's fireplace or wood stove. ....only a few hours of wood burning in a single home at night can raise fine particle concentrations in dozens of surrounding homes throughout the neighborhood and cause PAH concentrations higher than 2,000 ng/m3." (Dr. Wayne Ott, Stanford University, Feb. 1, 1998)
1. "... as many as 60,000 U.S. residents per year may die from breathing particulate at or below legally allowed levels." (Joel Schwartz, USEPA as quoted in Dust to Dust: A Particularly Lethal Legacy, Science News, 139:212, 1991); "Dirty-Air Cities Far Deadlier Than Clean Ones, Study Shows", The New York Times National, 3/10/95 p. A20; "Mammalian lungs don't have defenses against small particles, says Schwartz", Tiny Particles, Big Dilemma, Business Week, Aug.4, 1997)
2. Worldwide estimate of premature deaths due to wood smoke is 2.7 to 3 million, with respiratory illness being the largest killer of infants. Health and Environment in Sustainable Development, World Health Organization, 1997, p.242.
An 86 page research list is available on the web "An Annotated Bibliography on Acute Respiratory Infections and Indoor Air Pollution with Emphasis on Children Under 5 in Developing Countries", ( J.P. McCracken & K.R. Smith, done for the Environmental Health Project, USAID, December 1997.) Copies are available on the EHP web site at: http://www.crosslink.net/~ehp/aribib2.htm or contact Dan Campbell, EHP, at email, campbelldb@cdm.com to request a printed copy.
3. "The risk of premature death is 17% higher in cities with high fine particulate levels when compared with cities with cleaner air." (Dockery, et al, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, March 1995)
4. The elderly, newborns, children, adults who exercise rigorously and those with existing heart and lung disease are most at risk for premature death due to particle pollution exposure. (American Lung Association, "The Perils of Particulates", 1-800-LUNG-USA)
5. For every increase in the level of particle air pollution there is a measurable increase in chronic respiratory illness. On an average it is 6% increase in mortality and an 18 1/2% increase in respiratory hospital emissions for every 50 µg/m3. (Joel Schwartz, Harvard School of Public Health, Particulate Air Pollution and Chronic Respiratory Disease, Environmental Research 62, 7-13, 1993)
6. In localities where wood is the predominant house heating fuel, wood stoves have been shown to contribute as much as 80% of the ambient PM10 (fine particle) concentrations during winter months. This study shows that the new technology stoves do not achieve the emission reduction expected. Some models were experiencing degraded emission control performance after only a few months use. "the relatively poor showing of the control technologies was very disappointing." ( In-House Performance of New Technology Wood stoves, EPA/600/D-90/026, Robert C. McCrillis, EPA/600/D-90/026)
7. In some neighborhoods, on some days, 90% of the particle pollution is from residential burning. (Jane Koenig and Timothy Larson, A Summary of Emissions Characterization and Non-cancer Respiratory Effects of Wood Smoke, USEPA DOC #453/R-93-036, 1-919-541-0888)
8. a) Children's health studies document that living in homes where wood is burned, and in communities where wood smoke is prevalent, the wood smoke smoke causes decreases in lung capacity and increases in asthma attacks, frequency and severity of general respiratory illness, emergency room visits and school absences. b.) Wood burning releases many air pollutants, some of these are: chlorinated Dioxin, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and fine particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5). ("A Summary of Emissions Characterizations and Non-Cancer Respiratory Effects of Wood Smoke", Anuszewski, , Larson, , and Koenig, (1992); " Simultaneous Indoor and Outdoor Particle Light Scattering Measurements at Nine Homes Using a Portable Nephelometer" University of Washington, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Dept. of Environmental Health)
9. Lab rats exposed to 750ug/m3 wood smoke concentration experienced an immediate 25% reduction in pulmonary bacterial clearance. Certain lung functions were reduced by 23% and 61% after 1.5 and 2.5 hours respectively. Researchers concluded that wood smoke compromises important pulmonary immune defense mechanisms and suggests an association between wood smoke and increased incidence of respiratory infection. (Zelikoff, J.T., N.Y. Univ. Med. Center, Instit. of Env. Med, CIAR Currents, Nov. 1994)
10. 50% of the polynuclear organic material (POM)in our air is from residential burning. POMs contain the subgroup PAH. PAHs include benzo(a) pyrene and other known carcinogenic compounds.(In-House Performance of New Technology Wood Stoves, EPA/600/D-90/026)
11. California: Data from a fixed site in a residential neighborhood of the San Francisco Bay Area shows that particulate concentrations increase most rapidly in the early evening and that the highest concentrations occur in the late evening, after 11 PM. (Real Time Monitoring of Air Borne Particulates", Mary J. Rozenberg, Inhalation Toxicology, (7(5), 1995 ).
12. California:In middle class suburban California neighborhood indoor and outdoor PAH levels coincided with residential wood stove and fireplace use in the evenings of the heating season. Indoor levels averaged 60% of outdoor levels. Indoor-Outdoor PAH Time Series from the Residential Exposure Project, Technical Progress Report #1, Development of and Advanced Total Human Exposure Model, EPA Innovative Research Program, Nov. 1995, Wayne Ott, Ph.D; Neil Kleipus.
13. The US EPA warns that exposure to a fraction of a nanogram of PAH increases our risk of developing cancer. (Wood Burning Fireplaces: Romance or Risk, BioScience Vol. 32 No 2, February, 1982)
14. Wood smoke contains over 200 chemicals and compound groups. The emissions are almost entirely in the inhalable size range. This paper is a must read. (Environmental Impact of Residential Wood Combustion Emissions and Its Implications, John A. Cooper, APCA Journal, Vol.30 No.8, August 1980); Air borne wood dust (uncombusted) can cause respiratory, eye and skin irritation. Breathing excessive amounts of wood dust has been associated with nasal cancer in some industries. The international agency for research of cancer (LARC) classified all wood dust as a human carcinogen Group 1.
15.(a) Wood smoke particle analysis show particle range between 0.15 and .4 microns, with essentially none greater than one micron, (Koenig, et al, 1993); (b) Burning Issues shows a photograph of wood particles taken from a woman's diseased lung on our website. Note the tissue piercing shape of the coated and uncoated wood fibers, (Interstitial Lung Disease and Domestic Wood Burning, Ramage, Roggli, Bell, and Piantadosi, 1987); (c ) The smoke pollution particles are so small that they filter into our homes even with all the doors and windows closed. The level of indoor air pollution is typically equal to 70% of the outdoor pollution level. (The Health Effects of Wood Smoke, Washington State Department of Ecology)
16. (a)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); (b)"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 or driving 2 diesel powered cars 10,000 miles each @ 30 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, follower 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)
17. Free radicals produced from wood smoke are chemically active for twenty minutes, tobacco smoke free radicals are chemically active for thirty seconds. Wood smoke free radicals may attack our bodies cells up to forty times longer once inhaled. (Lachocki, Pryor, et al, Persistent Free Radicals in Wood smoke, Louisiana State University, Free Radical Biology & Medicine Vol.12, 1992)
18. Dioxin:Wood burning is the second largest source of dioxin in the San Francisco Bay Area. (LLL, 2001) Wood burning is the third largest source of dioxin in the United States. (EPA 1994, Loretta Ucelli spokeswoman, Washington Post)
19. The San Francisco Bay Area alone could enjoy $2 billion a year in health benefits, avoid thousands of serious illnesses and save 400 lives a year if the air quality regulators would focus on reducing particle air pollution (Jane Hall, Environmental Scientist, California State University at Fullerton, Air Quality Regulators Pick Wrong Target, S.F. Chronicle, 9/26/94) (David Fairley of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District estimates that more than $1 billion of medical illness expense in the Bay area is from wood smoke pollution. One wood fire can cost as much as $40. of medical damage to neighbors. The BAAQMD e
20. "Simply banning or limiting wood fires could potentially save many lives at little or no cost."(David Fairley, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, De Mandel, R., Rothenberg, M., and Perardi, T. (1992), Results From the 1991-92 Pilot Study of Wintertime PM10 in the San Francisco Bay Area, BAAQMD, TM 92002)
21. Animal toxicology studies show that wood smoke exposure can disrupt cellular membranes, depress macrophage activity, destroy ciliated and secretory respiratory epithelial cells and cause aberrations in biochemical enzyme levels." (3) A Summary Of Emissions Characterization And Noncancer Respiratory Effects Of Wood Smoke, Timothy V. Larson and Jane Q. Koenig, U.S.EPA-453/R-93-036, Dec. 1993)
22. A medical evaluation of Mexican women who regularly cook over open wood fires revealed ravaged lungs and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, more severe than tobacco-related Chronic Obstructed Pulmonary Disease. (Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Cor Pulmonale Associated with Chronic Domestic Wood smoke Inhalation, Julio Sandoval, M.D., etal., Chest 1993;103p12-20.)
23. Wood stoves linked to mouth cancer. Thursday January 21 8:07 PM ET NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters Health) -- Wood burning stoves appear to increase the risk of cancers of the mouth and throat, a study suggests. People exposed to the smoke from such stoves have 2 to 3 times the risk of cancers of the mouth and throat, and the wood stoves may be responsible for 30% of all such cancers, according to the study conducted of 2,352 people living in Southern Brazil. ``Cooking and heating stoves are used in more than half the world's households and have been shown in many locations to produce high indoor concentrations of particulates, carbon monoxide and other combustion-related pollutants,'' reported Dr. Eduardo Franco, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues in the International Journal of Epidemiology. ``Wood and coal fires generate a number of combustion products which are known, or suspected carcinogenic agents.'' Franco, along with Brazilian colleagues, compared 784 patients with mouth and throat cancers to 1,568 people without cancer. Of the cancer patients, about 48% had mouth cancer, 27% had pharyngeal cancer and 25% had laryngeal cancer. After taking into account tobacco and alcohol consumption, which increase the risk of such cancers, particularly when consumed together, the researchers found that the use of a wood stove was still linked to increased cancer risk. The women in the study appeared to be at greater risk for the cancer, particularly cancer of the larynx. ``This finding is probably related to the fact that women are more exposed to emissions from wood stoves,'' the authors note. ``Analogous results were found in China, where women exposed to emissions from cooking stoves were at higher risk of developing lung cancer than men.''(International Journal of Epidemiology 1998; 27:936-940)
24. England began to mandate clean fuel use following the UK Clean Air Act of 1956, first in London, then in towns of designated populations with a smoke control order. This was a result of the deaths of 4,000 people during the infamous London Smog air pollution episode of December 1952. Solid fuel combustion was a significant contributing factor. This one page ordinance has stood for over fifty years. (Clean Air Legislation in the UK. On Her Majesty's Service, Dept. of the Environment)
25. "I saw very strong and significant associations between tonsillitis, frequent cough, pseudo-croup, exercise induced wheeze, food allergies and Wood smoke exposure in our school children. I think that Wood smoke is one of the most harmful air pollutants we have on earth." (Gerd Oberfeld, M.D., Epidemiologist, Public health office - Unit for Environmental Health, Salzburg, Austria. International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, (ISAAC) Salzburg 1997.)
26. "The largest single source of outdoor fine particles (PM2.5) entering into our homes in many American cities is our neighbor's fireplace or wood stove. Despite the ineffectiveness of a fireplace in heating a home, only a few hours of wood burning in a single home at night can raise fine particle concentrations in dozens of surrounding homes throughout the neighborhood and cause PAH concentrations higher than 2,000 ng/m3. The far reaching implications of these scientific discoveries for environmental laws have not yet sunk in the Nation's consciousness. The best way to reduce the exposures of our children and families to toxic pollutants that cause cancer, asthma, or other diseases is by taking very simple steps in our daily lives, not relying on billion-dollar "remediations" or complex laws controlling industrial point source emissions. Indeed, ignoring indoor air pollution and human exposure as the nation is doing under its current environmental laws, is a tragic disregard of our children's health and the well-being of future generations." ( Dr. Wayne Ott, Statistics, Stanford University, 2/1/98)
27. Smoke is smoke: Smoke from the burning of the straw residues from Kentucky grass seed fields contains at least two different types of organic compounds, i.e. the phenolic compounds and the PAHs. The phenols appear to be present in much higher concentrations than the PAHs. In the short-term, inhalation of this smoke, from MSDS toxicity data, would appear that these relatively volatile phenolic compounds are likely to cause acute irritation of the mucous membranes of the lungs as well as eye and skin irritation. Further, the long-term carcinogenic effects due to exposure to the PAHs could be expected. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF GRASS SEED FIELD STRAW, Jeffrey A. Corkill, Ph. D., Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Eastern Washington University (1996)
Project Statement: Smoke from residential burning of wood, wood burning restaurants and outdoor burning of wood, crops and debris is permeating our neighborhoods. This burning results in high ground level concentrations of toxic air pollution. Millions of people are becoming ill from these emissions and some are dying. Awareness and education are the key elements to the abatement of this source of deadly fine particulate pollution in our communities. Please take the time to read these informative fact sheets.
Particulate pollution is the most important contaminant in our air. ...we know that when particle levels go up, people die. A number of studies also show changes in inflammatory markers in the blood, which are risk factors for heart attack." Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health, E Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2002
"The largest single source of outdoor fine particles (PM2.5) entering into our homes in many American cities is our neighbor's fireplace or wood stove. ....only a few hours of wood burning in a single home at night can raise fine particle concentrations in dozens of surrounding homes throughout the neighborhood and cause PAH concentrations higher than 2,000 ng/m3." (Dr. Wayne Ott, Stanford University, Feb. 1, 1998)
1. "... as many as 60,000 U.S. residents per year may die from breathing particulate at or below legally allowed levels." (Joel Schwartz, USEPA as quoted in Dust to Dust: A Particularly Lethal Legacy, Science News, 139:212, 1991); "Dirty-Air Cities Far Deadlier Than Clean Ones, Study Shows", The New York Times National, 3/10/95 p. A20; "Mammalian lungs don't have defenses against small particles, says Schwartz", Tiny Particles, Big Dilemma, Business Week, Aug.4, 1997)
2. Worldwide estimate of premature deaths due to wood smoke is 2.7 to 3 million, with respiratory illness being the largest killer of infants. Health and Environment in Sustainable Development, World Health Organization, 1997, p.242.
An 86 page research list is available on the web "An Annotated Bibliography on Acute Respiratory Infections and Indoor Air Pollution with Emphasis on Children Under 5 in Developing Countries", ( J.P. McCracken & K.R. Smith, done for the Environmental Health Project, USAID, December 1997.) Copies are available on the EHP web site at: http://www.crosslink.net/~ehp/aribib2.htm or contact Dan Campbell, EHP, at email, campbelldb@cdm.com to request a printed copy.
3. "The risk of premature death is 17% higher in cities with high fine particulate levels when compared with cities with cleaner air." (Dockery, et al, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, March 1995)
4. The elderly, newborns, children, adults who exercise rigorously and those with existing heart and lung disease are most at risk for premature death due to particle pollution exposure. (American Lung Association, "The Perils of Particulates", 1-800-LUNG-USA)
5. For every increase in the level of particle air pollution there is a measurable increase in chronic respiratory illness. On an average it is 6% increase in mortality and an 18 1/2% increase in respiratory hospital emissions for every 50 µg/m3. (Joel Schwartz, Harvard School of Public Health, Particulate Air Pollution and Chronic Respiratory Disease, Environmental Research 62, 7-13, 1993)
6. In localities where wood is the predominant house heating fuel, wood stoves have been shown to contribute as much as 80% of the ambient PM10 (fine particle) concentrations during winter months. This study shows that the new technology stoves do not achieve the emission reduction expected. Some models were experiencing degraded emission control performance after only a few months use. "the relatively poor showing of the control technologies was very disappointing." ( In-House Performance of New Technology Wood stoves, EPA/600/D-90/026, Robert C. McCrillis, EPA/600/D-90/026)
7. In some neighborhoods, on some days, 90% of the particle pollution is from residential burning. (Jane Koenig and Timothy Larson, A Summary of Emissions Characterization and Non-cancer Respiratory Effects of Wood Smoke, USEPA DOC #453/R-93-036, 1-919-541-0888)
8. a) Children's health studies document that living in homes where wood is burned, and in communities where wood smoke is prevalent, the wood smoke smoke causes decreases in lung capacity and increases in asthma attacks, frequency and severity of general respiratory illness, emergency room visits and school absences. b.) Wood burning releases many air pollutants, some of these are: chlorinated Dioxin, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and fine particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5). ("A Summary of Emissions Characterizations and Non-Cancer Respiratory Effects of Wood Smoke", Anuszewski, , Larson, , and Koenig, (1992); " Simultaneous Indoor and Outdoor Particle Light Scattering Measurements at Nine Homes Using a Portable Nephelometer" University of Washington, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Dept. of Environmental Health)
9. Lab rats exposed to 750ug/m3 wood smoke concentration experienced an immediate 25% reduction in pulmonary bacterial clearance. Certain lung functions were reduced by 23% and 61% after 1.5 and 2.5 hours respectively. Researchers concluded that wood smoke compromises important pulmonary immune defense mechanisms and suggests an association between wood smoke and increased incidence of respiratory infection. (Zelikoff, J.T., N.Y. Univ. Med. Center, Instit. of Env. Med, CIAR Currents, Nov. 1994)
10. 50% of the polynuclear organic material (POM)in our air is from residential burning. POMs contain the subgroup PAH. PAHs include benzo(a) pyrene and other known carcinogenic compounds.(In-House Performance of New Technology Wood Stoves, EPA/600/D-90/026)
11. California: Data from a fixed site in a residential neighborhood of the San Francisco Bay Area shows that particulate concentrations increase most rapidly in the early evening and that the highest concentrations occur in the late evening, after 11 PM. (Real Time Monitoring of Air Borne Particulates", Mary J. Rozenberg, Inhalation Toxicology, (7(5), 1995 ).
12. California:In middle class suburban California neighborhood indoor and outdoor PAH levels coincided with residential wood stove and fireplace use in the evenings of the heating season. Indoor levels averaged 60% of outdoor levels. Indoor-Outdoor PAH Time Series from the Residential Exposure Project, Technical Progress Report #1, Development of and Advanced Total Human Exposure Model, EPA Innovative Research Program, Nov. 1995, Wayne Ott, Ph.D; Neil Kleipus.
13. The US EPA warns that exposure to a fraction of a nanogram of PAH increases our risk of developing cancer. (Wood Burning Fireplaces: Romance or Risk, BioScience Vol. 32 No 2, February, 1982)
14. Wood smoke contains over 200 chemicals and compound groups. The emissions are almost entirely in the inhalable size range. This paper is a must read. (Environmental Impact of Residential Wood Combustion Emissions and Its Implications, John A. Cooper, APCA Journal, Vol.30 No.8, August 1980); Air borne wood dust (uncombusted) can cause respiratory, eye and skin irritation. Breathing excessive amounts of wood dust has been associated with nasal cancer in some industries. The international agency for research of cancer (LARC) classified all wood dust as a human carcinogen Group 1.
15.(a) Wood smoke particle analysis show particle range between 0.15 and .4 microns, with essentially none greater than one micron, (Koenig, et al, 1993); (b) Burning Issues shows a photograph of wood particles taken from a woman's diseased lung on our website. Note the tissue piercing shape of the coated and uncoated wood fibers, (Interstitial Lung Disease and Domestic Wood Burning, Ramage, Roggli, Bell, and Piantadosi, 1987); (c ) The smoke pollution particles are so small that they filter into our homes even with all the doors and windows closed. The level of indoor air pollution is typically equal to 70% of the outdoor pollution level. (The Health Effects of Wood Smoke, Washington State Department of Ecology)
16. (a)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); (b)"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 or driving 2 diesel powered cars 10,000 miles each @ 30 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, follower 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)
17. Free radicals produced from wood smoke are chemically active for twenty minutes, tobacco smoke free radicals are chemically active for thirty seconds. Wood smoke free radicals may attack our bodies cells up to forty times longer once inhaled. (Lachocki, Pryor, et al, Persistent Free Radicals in Wood smoke, Louisiana State University, Free Radical Biology & Medicine Vol.12, 1992)
18. Dioxin:Wood burning is the second largest source of dioxin in the San Francisco Bay Area. (LLL, 2001) Wood burning is the third largest source of dioxin in the United States. (EPA 1994, Loretta Ucelli spokeswoman, Washington Post)
19. The San Francisco Bay Area alone could enjoy $2 billion a year in health benefits, avoid thousands of serious illnesses and save 400 lives a year if the air quality regulators would focus on reducing particle air pollution (Jane Hall, Environmental Scientist, California State University at Fullerton, Air Quality Regulators Pick Wrong Target, S.F. Chronicle, 9/26/94) (David Fairley of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District estimates that more than $1 billion of medical illness expense in the Bay area is from wood smoke pollution. One wood fire can cost as much as $40. of medical damage to neighbors. The BAAQMD e
20. "Simply banning or limiting wood fires could potentially save many lives at little or no cost."(David Fairley, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, De Mandel, R., Rothenberg, M., and Perardi, T. (1992), Results From the 1991-92 Pilot Study of Wintertime PM10 in the San Francisco Bay Area, BAAQMD, TM 92002)
21. Animal toxicology studies show that wood smoke exposure can disrupt cellular membranes, depress macrophage activity, destroy ciliated and secretory respiratory epithelial cells and cause aberrations in biochemical enzyme levels." (3) A Summary Of Emissions Characterization And Noncancer Respiratory Effects Of Wood Smoke, Timothy V. Larson and Jane Q. Koenig, U.S.EPA-453/R-93-036, Dec. 1993)
22. A medical evaluation of Mexican women who regularly cook over open wood fires revealed ravaged lungs and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, more severe than tobacco-related Chronic Obstructed Pulmonary Disease. (Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Cor Pulmonale Associated with Chronic Domestic Wood smoke Inhalation, Julio Sandoval, M.D., etal., Chest 1993;103
p12-20.)23. Wood stoves linked to mouth cancer. Thursday January 21 8:07 PM ET NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters Health) -- Wood burning stoves appear to increase the risk of cancers of the mouth and throat, a study suggests. People exposed to the smoke from such stoves have 2 to 3 times the risk of cancers of the mouth and throat, and the wood stoves may be responsible for 30% of all such cancers, according to the study conducted of 2,352 people living in Southern Brazil. ``Cooking and heating stoves are used in more than half the world's households and have been shown in many locations to produce high indoor concentrations of particulates, carbon monoxide and other combustion-related pollutants,'' reported Dr. Eduardo Franco, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues in the International Journal of Epidemiology. ``Wood and coal fires generate a number of combustion products which are known, or suspected carcinogenic agents.'' Franco, along with Brazilian colleagues, compared 784 patients with mouth and throat cancers to 1,568 people without cancer. Of the cancer patients, about 48% had mouth cancer, 27% had pharyngeal cancer and 25% had laryngeal cancer. After taking into account tobacco and alcohol consumption, which increase the risk of such cancers, particularly when consumed together, the researchers found that the use of a wood stove was still linked to increased cancer risk. The women in the study appeared to be at greater risk for the cancer, particularly cancer of the larynx. ``This finding is probably related to the fact that women are more exposed to emissions from wood stoves,'' the authors note. ``Analogous results were found in China, where women exposed to emissions from cooking stoves were at higher risk of developing lung cancer than men.''(International Journal of Epidemiology 1998; 27:936-940)
24. England began to mandate clean fuel use following the UK Clean Air Act of 1956, first in London, then in towns of designated populations with a smoke control order. This was a result of the deaths of 4,000 people during the infamous London Smog air pollution episode of December 1952. Solid fuel combustion was a significant contributing factor. This one page ordinance has stood for over fifty years. (Clean Air Legislation in the UK. On Her Majesty's Service, Dept. of the Environment)
25. "I saw very strong and significant associations between tonsillitis, frequent cough, pseudo-croup, exercise induced wheeze, food allergies and Wood smoke exposure in our school children. I think that Wood smoke is one of the most harmful air pollutants we have on earth." (Gerd Oberfeld, M.D., Epidemiologist, Public health office - Unit for Environmental Health, Salzburg, Austria. International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, (ISAAC) Salzburg 1997.)
26. "The largest single source of outdoor fine particles (PM2.5) entering into our homes in many American cities is our neighbor's fireplace or wood stove. Despite the ineffectiveness of a fireplace in heating a home, only a few hours of wood burning in a single home at night can raise fine particle concentrations in dozens of surrounding homes throughout the neighborhood and cause PAH concentrations higher than 2,000 ng/m3. The far reaching implications of these scientific discoveries for environmental laws have not yet sunk in the Nation's consciousness. The best way to reduce the exposures of our children and families to toxic pollutants that cause cancer, asthma, or other diseases is by taking very simple steps in our daily lives, not relying on billion-dollar "remediations" or complex laws controlling industrial point source emissions. Indeed, ignoring indoor air pollution and human exposure as the nation is doing under its current environmental laws, is a tragic disregard of our children's health and the well-being of future generations." ( Dr. Wayne Ott, Statistics, Stanford University, 2/1/98)
27. Smoke is smoke: Smoke from the burning of the straw residues from Kentucky grass seed fields contains at least two different types of organic compounds, i.e. the phenolic compounds and the PAHs. The phenols appear to be present in much higher concentrations than the PAHs. In the short-term, inhalation of this smoke, from MSDS toxicity data, would appear that these relatively volatile phenolic compounds are likely to cause acute irritation of the mucous membranes of the lungs as well as eye and skin irritation. Further, the long-term carcinogenic effects due to exposure to the PAHs could be expected. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF GRASS SEED FIELD STRAW, Jeffrey A. Corkill, Ph. D., Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Eastern Washington University (1996)
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
I suppose those living in a tin shack, in India, and having an indoor campfire for heating and cooking, might well have some issues with breathing smoke. If you live in the West, I hope you are not downwind from the huge annual forest fires in that region...as those fires blank out any access to clean air for days.
grahamg
Old codger
- Location
- South of Manchester, UK
I think the issue might be more to do with the type of wood burner, or the way its used.
Two "so called mates of mine", could not be more different in the types of stoves or wood burners they have, nor how they choose to use them. One who thinks he's the world expert on almost everything could not be more wasteful of wood/coal used to try to burn the wet wood he uses, nor more polluting, whilst the other makes a proper job, and his stove/wood burner, air shut right down, over night etc., burns one large log in twelve hours very efficiently with little or no pollution I'd guess!
Remy
Well-known Member
- Location
- California, USA
My stepfather was a foreman for the county road department. Pacific coastal and there were some insane wind and rain storms. All the trees they hauled off the roads were taken back to the county yard. All the employees had free wood. Reading your post makes me feel better that the wood we used was from trees that fell naturally.
Don M.
SF VIP
- Location
- central Missouri
I think the issue might be more to do with the type of wood burner, or the way its used.
Two "so called mates of mine", could not be more different in the types of stoves or wood burners they have, nor how they choose to use them. One who thinks he's the world expert on almost everything could not be more wasteful of wood/coal used to try to burn the wet wood he uses, nor more polluting, whilst the other makes a proper job, and his stove/wood burner, air shut right down, over night etc., burns one large log in twelve hours very efficiently with little or no pollution I'd guess!
The type of wood being burned has a great deal to do with any pollution it creates. "Seasoned" or wood that has been cut/dead for several months before burning is the least likely to pollute. Wet/recently cut live wood has a great deal of moisture and sap, which burns far more slowly and generates more smoke and pollution.
With my big outdoor wood furnace, and an unlimited supply of trees, I try to stay a year ahead of my burning. The wood I used this year was wood I cut in late 2019/early 2020. I started cutting next Winters wood this past Fall, and now that warmer weather is arriving, I'll be getting the chainsaw out soon, and be done by May. That way, it has plenty of time to "marinate", and when I burn, there is minimal smoke coming out of the chimney.