A voice in the dark is never heard until someone listens! (Vicki M.)

Please sign my online petition.

Newspaper article of April 16, 2008

Jim & Shirley Brandie  v  Salvatore DeSantis & Marina Estrella

Article from United Press International

 

Residential wood burning releases harmful and toxic pollutants into the air we breathe. These pollutants are so tiny they are emitted both indoors and outdoors...and seep into our homes through cracks, ventilation systems and even around closed doors and windows. Breathing in wood smoke in any quantity is not good for anyone. Why should we be subjected to any residential wood burning smoke and odour in our homes, yards and neighborhoods...especially against our will.

Dioxins and furans are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science. ... The EPA report confirmed that dioxin is a cancer hazard to people. When you burn wood you produce dioxin. A recent Lawrence Livermore study found that while wood burning was the third largest source of dioxin in many cities.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are produced in abundance when you burn wood. "They are primarily formed by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing fuels such as wood, coal, diesel, fat, or tobacco. Tar also contains PAHs. Since human civilization relies so heavily on combustion, PAHs are inevitably linked to our energy production. In this sense, PAH can be thought of as marker molecules as their abundance can be directly proportional to combustion processes in the region and therefore directly related to air quality. Different types of combustion yield different distributions of PAHs."� Wikipedia�

In February of 1995 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission received a report on indoor carcinogenic pollutant emissions from EPA Phase II Wood Stoves: Normalizing for the rate of wood consumption during each test, the average Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) source strength is 32 ng/kg of wood burned. The average Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) source strength is 360 ng/kg of wood. This is the exposure on average to the user. The neighbor, of course, gets the brunt of wood smoke pollution. (NISTIR 5575) U.S. Department of Commerce.

The EPA estimates that the lifetime cancer risk from wood stove smoke is twelve times greater than that from an equal volume of second hand tobacco smoke. (The Health Effects of Wood Smoke, Washington State Department of Ecology) "Burning two cords of wood produces the same amount of mutagenic particles as: Driving 13 gasoline powered cars 10,000 miles each at 20 miles/gallon. These figures indicate that the worst contribution that an individual is likely to make to the mutagenicity of the air is using a wood stove for heating, followed by driving a diesel car." ( Dr. Joellen Lewtas, Contribution of Source Emissions of the Mutagenicity of Ambient Urban Air Particles, U.S. EPA, #91-131.6, 1991 )

Emerging air pollution research has linked soot from all sources to increases in many illnesses, infections and premature deaths - perhaps 60,000 every year in the United States, and almost 2 million worldwide. It is accepted science that was established at a major colloquium: "Particulate Air Pollution and Human Mortality and Morbidity" in 1994, with a paper by Dr. Joel Schwartz, et al. Interviewed for this article, Dr. Schwartz said: "PM2.5 is very bad for public health. Large and growing populations can live safely together, with little increased PM2.5, if clean fuel is mandated. It is impossible to burn solid fuel cleanly under home conditions. Wood burning and wood stoves in populated areas are a terrible idea."