The growing popularity of
outdoor wood-fired boilers (OWB), also known as outdoor wood-fired hydronic
heaters or outdoor wood-fired furnaces, has been increasing at an alarming rate,
affecting areas of NY, CT, MN, WA, and other states. Although residents voice
concerns over health dangers attributed to excessive amounts of toxic smoke emitted
by OWBs, there is not enough being done by local and state officials to
regulate residential wood smoke.
Frustrated residents
complain, “Our kids are getting sick. Officials are just not listening to our
cries for help.” In one Mid Hudson home,
two garaged ferrets died after a six month exposure to the smoke of a next door
neighbor’s outdoor wood furnace. The homeowners described the smoke as noxious
and relentless, stating that it set off their smoke alarm almost daily. “We
finally had to disconnect it [our smoke alarm]. That’s a fire hazard as far as
we’re concerned.” Another complained she
had to keep scrubbing soot off her bedroom walls. Needless to say, when it
comes to the issue of, to burn or not to burn, arguments between neighbors and
local officials have been cropping up in many municipalities throughout New
York and other states. “Canada is a step ahead of us in
bans and regulation of wood smoke,” states Victoria Valentine who is involved
with USA and Canadian groups
fighting for wood smoke regulation.
“We’re fighting for our freedom to breathe clean air and right to quiet
enjoyment of our homes and healthy lifestyle.”
Clean Air Hudson, a group
of concerned Mid Hudson Valley residents, has been campaigning for clean air by
lobbying local and state officials and agencies, requesting stricter regulation
of wood smoke that is now flowing freely in our air, polluting and promoting illness.
“Along with our request for regulation, we are asking New York to follow the lead of Connecticut’s recent attempt to
protect residents from wood smoke,” states Valentine, founder of www.cleanairhudson.com. HB 6616, AN ACT ESTABLISHING
WOOD SMOKE TO BE A PUBLIC NUISANCE, if passed, wouldredefine wood smoke as a
public health nuisance and allow action to be taken to protect people in their
own homes, Margaret R. LaCroix of the American
Lung Association of New England reports.
“We don’t want to deprive
anyone of the right to burn wood but believe oversight is necessary to protect
health and environment. Burning wood should never be the primary source of heat
and hot water for any home. Limitations would help alleviate some of the high
concentrations of wood smoke affecting many areas where residents are gravely
affected.” Valentine insists, “Wood smoke
is more than an annoyance; it can become a severe health hazard when fine
particulate matter is inhaled and lodges in your lungs. We want the public to
know.”
Valentine herself was
treated last fall for serious respiratory damage resulting from wood smoke
inhalation when her next door neighbor tried to heat his home solely with wood.
Involuntarily breathing the excessive smoke caused what her doctor called internal
sunburn complicated by a staph infection.
Burning wood for heat and
hot water is not GREEN as the wood stove industry and other proponents proclaim. It blankets the atmosphere with black carbon
soot that contributes to global warming. Wood smoke contains carcinogenic
particulates along with some of the greenhouse gases the Obama Administration
is pushing to control: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons,
perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride that negatively impact our planet.
When you live in close
proximity to a wood burning device you may be exposed to 24/7 smoke inhalation,
which is as bad as or worse than breathing second hand tobacco smoke. Exposure
to wood smoke causes an array of symptoms such as headaches, burning eyes,
nose, throat and chest. The American Lung Association and the EPA agree that
wood smoke exposure worsens or can cause asthma and respiratory illness along
with a host of other illnesses. Scientific studies find pregnant women,
children and the elderly to be most at risk. Wood smoke has been linked to SIDS
[Sudden Infant Death Syndrome] and may weaken healthy immune systems leading to
premature death, and the list goes on.
“Inhalation of wood smoke
should be avoided,” states the EPA website which recently provided information
on wood stove swap-outs. This concerns Valentine. “On one hand they warn of the
dangers of wood smoke and on the other they offer tax credits for those who
want to swap an old wood stove for a new one. Smoke is smoke. Why not swap wood
stoves for clean burning gas or electric stoves?”
Wood smoke crosses property
lines, hovers and surrounds homes, infiltrating through closed doors and windows,
walls, electrical outlets and normal air exchange. Even if you don’t see or smell the smoke, if
you live next door to or near an operating OWB or wood stove, toxic smoke is
more than likely entering your home, affecting the health of your family. “We have tobacco smoke restrictions,”
Valentine argues, “why not wood smoke?
You can avoid cigarette smoke, but you can’t avoid breathing
contaminated air in your own home that’s being bombarded by your neighbor’s
wood smoke. Would you give your kids a carton of cigarettes and tell them to
chain-smoke? Exposing them to wood smoke on a daily basis is just as bad, if
not worse.”
Sources: burningissues.org,
nescaum.org, epa.gov, lungusa.org, woodsmokefreeny.com
VictoriaSky
http://www.cleanairhudson.com
http://www.woodsmokefreeny.com
