The Wood Smoke Activist

An Attorney in New Hampshire, U.S.A., got smoked by an OWB and is suing and won't give up till he wins! He helped get an OWB bill passed in New Hampshire, but so far it has not helped him with his OWB problem. He has $50,000 into engineering fees and modeling fees and I would not want him fighting me, or my town.

I spent some time talking to him today and got some ideas on top legal firms and class action cases for poorly engineered classes of products with a commonality of fraud and statements such as saying things are safe when they are like lemon autos, requiring action to protect the consumers and public. I came out of this conversation humbled by the difficulty of legal issues and the cost, time and stress. He agreed with me that OWBs can be dangerous and a health nuisance. I swear and affirm this as if in a court of law.

The thing of it is, you can compare uncertified stove smoke and fireplace smoke with owb smoke and they look absolutely the same! See http://www.vtwoodsmoke.org for OWB photos.

This attorney says OWBs should be banned, no question, and he is pushing for that. Washington State, U.S.A. was right to ban OWBs and they are right to be considering banning all uncertified equipment, in my opinion.

Shirlie Brandie has lots of support and is a leader in the area of air pollution and public health. Her Med Tech science training and laboratory experience is really something her town should respect and her great public outreach efforts are the ideal for citizen involvement. I think Amherstburg should follow the advice of this great woman and give her a medal to boot. Soldiers get medals for action beyond the call of duty and that is what she is doing, going the extra mile.

Update: The Am Lung Assn told me that Atty Cole won a permanent injunction against the owb. I do not not know if he got expenses or not. This shows that it can be done but it takes time that victims do not often have. Others have sued by them selves in small claims court and brought in doctors and engineers for testimony with support of neighbors for witnesses and won.

Ernest

You had mentioned...Others have sued by them selves in small claims court and brought in doctors and engineers for testimony with support of neighbors for witnesses and won...WHERE ARE THESE SMALL CLAIMS COURT???

We live in Notre-Dame-De-L'ile Perrot next to Montreal QC.
and went to small claims court in 2007, and was told by the Judge
that we need to go to superior court for an injunction because small claim courts in Qc. do not have the power to
give out an injunction.

Mind you, we had letters from two doctors, a real estate agent etc.
and other documents for our case...it was not enough because we needed both Doctors, and agent etc. to attend the court hearing in person, and we had no money to pay them for their time to show up at small claims court.

We spoke with our lawyer, and our CA. accountant about our situation and were told it would be better to buy another property and move away from this house which by the way was my husbands dream home that he had built himself and wanted to live in the country.

So NOW forget about us going to superior court...bought another property back in Montreal.

I was semi retried, and now I am working no less then 60 hours per week so that we can maybe move within
a year, and a half while these burners next door get away with everything...THAT GETS MY BLOOD TO BOIL!

Thank you.

Regards
Jaguar

I live in Maine, in the United States. A lawyer advised me I could possibly go to small claims court in my area.

I am sorry you could not do anything in your location in Canada in small claims court. I was told small claims court could issue a stop order and order small expenses be recouped such as air cleaners, doctors visits, home repairs of a small nature. I never took my issue there. It was settled out of court by a woodburner installing a gas stove and stopping fireplace use voluntarily. But I too am probably going to have to move. I am surrounded by houses with fireplaces and stoves. I am very thankful that 90% or more do not burn wood for whatever reason, but that could change at any time. I have tried to fortify my house against woodsmoke but live in fear of it and always will. It is psychological damage that nobody talks about in all the medical literature about asthma attacks and heart attacks but the damage is real and permanet just the same. A neighbor behind me had a heart attack and my daughter had an asthma attack but I have had no success in getting the local or state government to do anything reasonable like a temporary ban or permanent ban or any change in laws to adapt to the changes in pm stds and science. Sometimes the best thing to do is move, I agree.

I also hope others read your article before they waste time preparing for a small claims court case that will not even be allowed to be brought forward.

The move will cost money and time and be difficult for us too but smoke in the amount we faced could be deadly and we want to live and enjoy life as much as we can, like you. I have been looking for a home in the heart of the country in our area but the smoke could be worse there. We have seen many houses for sale next to woodburners. The worst was all 6 abuttors next to a woodburner selling their homes at the same time immediately after the arrival of spring when the woodburning stopped. This is a public welfare problem to add to the public health problem and the increased mortality or loss of lives the US EPA says occurs when their pm stds are violated.

I am sorry to hear you too have to move...just not right.
we too are surrounded by burners but the worse ones live right next door because they burn 24/7 all winter long
even on days when it's sunny and about 20 degrees they still use their woodstove.

We found a duplex in Montreal where there is a bylaw forbidding any instalment of woodstoves but we do not
have enough money to move in yet...our nightmare continues.

We now have another lawyer which is getting us ready for small claims court or the next step Quebec court. we will be meeting with our lawyer Jan. 7th/2010, and will be our second meeting...will discuss what would be the best for our case etc.

also the lawyer will do the research into the matter of the bylaws,findings,etc. in our area...which I then will use when meeting with our new Mayor...we still plan to move but I just can not stop, win or loss, and have these burners continue getting away with all the harm they are causing to others, and to our environment without a fight.
our court hearing for small claims is March 9/10 it maybe changed depending on what our lawyer has to say.
we hope to have experts including a fireman that gave us a hard time show up at court but again all
depending on what our lawyer's advise will be.

We do know in order to recouped anything we would have to prove the damages etc. are due to our next door neighbors woodsmoke, and just the doctors letters, repairs, bills etc. may not be enough without the doctors etc. appearing at court. depending on some of the judges...like us the letters alone from my doctors, bills,etc were not enough we would have needed the experts to appear at court and would have cost more then what small claims could dish out...Here in Quebec the small claims court's are limited up to seven thousand dollars, and do not have the power to grant injunctions .

Hope you and your family will find a safe place to live.