From: rozen@microunity.com (Don Rozenberg)
Subject: Re: pollution from woodburning fireplace
Organization: MicroUnity Systems Engineering Inc.
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:04:32 GMT

ad376@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Patricia Dedula) writes:



>My neighbor has a woodburning fireplace which he burns from 
>morning to night.  It is polluting the air around my house to the
>point where I ca
>can hardly breathe when I am outside and it is getting into m
>my house.  Could anyone tell me what could be causing this 
>pollution.  Could he be burning the wrong kind of wood?  What 
>could my neighbor do to eliminate or cut down the strong smell
>that his coming from his fireplace and surrounding my house.
>I noticed even his chimney is getting black.

>-- 
>Pat Dedula 
>May you have Peace, Love, and Happiness forever ...

      The short summary of the environmental problems associated with
Residential Wood Burning is:

Particulate pollution is real - Residential Wood Burning (RWB) is the
largest contributor of particulate pollution in the Bay Area; 4 wood
stoves produce more particulate pollution than all the furnaces in Los
Altos, CA. (app.  10,000 households) - 1 million tons of wood are
burned per year in the San Francisco Bay Area according to Bay Area
Air Quality Management District.  That weight of RWB would generate
more than 15,000 tons of PM10 - Particulate matter less than ten
microns in diameter.

Particulate Pollution is dangerous - "... as many as 60,000 U. S.
residents per year die from breathing particulates at or below legally
allowed levels" - Joel Schwartz, EPA.  The principal groups at risk
represent half the population and include the very young, the elderly,
the chronically ill, those recovering from serious illness, pregnant
women and their unborn.  "For the San Francisco Bay Area, this risk is
much greater than the risks from any toxic identified so far." - David
Fairly, Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Residential Wood Burning also generates large quantities of pollutants
other than particulates which we are struggling to control including
more than 20% of the winter CO.  Wood smoke contains a large number of
the carcinogens identified in cigarette smoke as well as heavy metals
such as arsenic and lead.  In fact, the health effects are similar to
those attributed to secondary wood smoke.

EPA approved stoves do not solve the problem - they are hundreds of
times more polluting than natural gas furnaces.  "The PM10 pollution
from one old woodstove, emitting 60 grams/hour of PM10, equals that of
ten EPA Certified stoves (averaging 6 grams/hour PM10) or that of
three thousand gas furnaces - producing the same amount of heat."
from Woodburning Handbook published by the Air Resources Board of the
California Environmental Protection Agency.  Particulate pollution
from wood burning is a very local experience because unlike industrial
air pollution, residential smoke is emitted from short stacks in
residential areas.  The problem is frequenty exaserbated by radiation
inversion layers.

Banning Residential Wood Burning would have NEGATIVE COST because wood
is much more expensive than cleaner fuels.  How else can you reduce
pollution by 20% and save the polluter money?  Smoking fuels have been
banned in urban areas in Great Britain (1956) and the EC (1981).

	The above information is drawn from published technical reports
many of which are peer reviewed technical journals.  The inescapable
conclusion is that Residential Wood Burning is inappropriate in urban
areas.  For more information, join Burning Issues - A Coalition for
Smoke Free Air at the address below.

Burning Issues
66 Sylvian Way
Los Altos, CA 94022
415-949-4839 

Donald P. Rozenberg
--
Don Rozenberg
MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc.
255 Caspian Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Newsgroups: sci.environment