Only clean, dry wood and manufactured logs and pellets are legal to burn. When burned, these products produce smoke and odors, release toxic fumes harmful to your health and can damage heating units with catalytic devices. Burning of wood produces fine particulate matter that can be harmful to our lungs - similar to cigarette smoke.
Wood burning produces carbon monoxide and other toxins that can harm our health.
During one heating season, smoke from wood burning devices contributes over 2,000 tons of fine particulates in Spokane's air. In response to concerns over public health impacts from smoke, the rising levels of residential smoke pollution, and the smoky nature of older wood heating devices, the state legislature passed a law in 1988 requiring all new stoves sold in Washington to meet certification. As of January 1995, all new wood burning devices sold at retail in Washington state meet more stringent emissions standards. When installed and used properly, certified or approved devices emit 70-90 percent less particulate matter than conventional stoves. The new regulations require that new factory built fireplaces meet the United States Environmental Protection Agency emission standards.