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Wood fires source of air pollution
18 Nov 2006 08:32:06 -0800 soc.retirement
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California Poppy...
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Posted on Sat, Nov. 18, 2006
Officials try to snuff out wood fires BAY AREA: Stricter particle limits prompt plea to residents to find cleaner ways to warm up Yez...
By Denis Cuff CONTRA COSTA TIMES Bay Area residents, who drove less in the summer to "Spare the Air," will be asked for the first time this winter to give up wood fires in stoves and fireplaces to limit smoke on dirty air nights. Stricter new health standards to protect the public from soot have changed the threshold for when pollution regulators will ask for voluntary cooperation in not burning wood fires on dirty nights. The winter pollution season begins Monday and extends through Feb. 16. "Our message is not to burn wood. It's one of the easiest choices people can make to have a healthy community," said Karen Schkolnick, spokeswoman for the nine-county Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The Bay Area's regional air pollution district has rarely issued the winter no-burn advisories in the past. None were called last year. But regulators say they expect to go to the media this winter to get out the several advisories to protect people from ultra-fine particle pollution linked to asthma, bronchitis, and other lung and heart ailments. The air isn't dirtier, but pollution levels acceptable in the past are now considered harmful, officials say. Some may consider the change a crimp in their winter traditions, but a district study shows more area residents are opting not to burn wood in old-fashioned open-hearth fireplaces. "It's a cultural thing that many people have warm feelings about wood fires," Schkolnick said, "but there is increasing scientific evidence that the smoke can be harmful." In its Spare the Air Tonight winter advisories, the air district also will ask people to drive less because auto and truck exhaust is a major source of particle pollution. No free public transit rides will be offered in winter, however, as was done on six dirty-air days last summer to fight smog, a hot-weather problem. The closer watch over winter pollution stems from the federal Environmental Protection Agency's decision Sept. 21 to nearly halve its allowable limit for concentrations of tiny particles 1/30th as thick as a human hair. The limit dropped from 65 to 35 micrograms per cubic meter. Many studies suggested the tiny particles are more dangerous than previously believed, especially to young children and the elderly, air district officials say. San Jose and Concord air monitoring stations historically have among the highest particulate readings in the Bay Area, but they are not the only places where past particle readings have topped the new limit. Car and truck exhaust accounts for many of the fine particles in Bay Area air on a day-to-day basis, but a surge in wood fires on cold nights can push the air quality readings over the limit into the unhealthy range, Schkolnick said. Cold air can trap pollution close to ground so one fire in one old-fashioned fireplace can smoke up a neighborhood. The air district says the cleanest way to enjoy fires on cold nights is in popular modern fireplaces that use natural gas to heat ceramic logs. Some people will continue to burn wood, officials say. For those who do, the air district recommends EPA-approved stoves, fire boxes and fireplace inserts. These devices emit a fraction of the pollution spewed out by old wood stoves and traditional open-hearth fireplaces. The newer wood-burning technology has secondary combustion chambers or catalytic converters to destroy most pollution before venting exhaust into the atmosphere. The Bay Area air district has no current plans to ban wood fires on dirty-air nights, as is done in the San Joaquin Valley. However, if the district persistently fails to meet the stricter new health standard, some mandatory limits on wood burning might be considered, officials said. Contact reporter Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@cctimes.com. karl...
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