In the smog capital of Los Angeles, researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that 40 percent of the particle pollution during the winter months was wood smoke from fireplaces. A Sarasota, Fla., resident reports being literally smoked out of her home for two months by her neighbor's woodstove. In the north, this stench permeates every community. Microscopic wood-smoke particles, like tiny daggers, pierce tissue in the deepest recesses of our lungs. One hundred carcinogenic and toxic chemical compounds identified in wood smoke are carried by the particles directly to the bloodstream through the lungs.
Wood smoke is more carcinogenic than equal volumes of secondhand tobacco smoke.