Wood smoke particles are very tiny. Picture of wood particle taken out of a women's lung is on our website. The smoke comes inside even non-burning homes. The EPA estimates that wood smoke is 12 times more carcinogenic that equal amounts of tobacco smoke. Wood smoke attacks our body cells up to forty times longer than tobacco smoke.
Wood burning is the third largest source of dioxin in the United States.
Few people burn at all. David Fairley, Bay Area Air Quality Management District Neighborhood and work place smoke degrades our quality of life. Animal studies show that wood smoke exposure can mess up cell functions, destroy cells and cause unusual chemical levels in the blood. A study of Mexican women who cooked over wood but did not smoke showed that their lungs were ravaged, scared and bleeding and that they had developed heart disease. Wood stove smoke is linked to cancer of the mouth, throat neck and lungs.