Please sign Vicki's online petition .. a-breath-of-fresh-air.html

The crackle of a wood-burning fireplace may be a warming winter delight for those who have one.

But opposition from neighbours who don't want to breathe the smoke is spurring a new look at the issue.

Metro Vancouver officials say new research shows wood smoke is a significant source of particulate, even in urban areas like Metro Vancouver.

And they're beginning to now considering whether more action is needed to protect local health.

"While overall levels of wood smoke pollution may be higher in rural areas, urban wood smoke may have a larger population-level health impact because of the greater number of people exposed," says a Metro Vancouver report.

An estimated 128,500 homes in Metro Vancouver have wood-burning stoves or fireplaces.

The regional district estimates residential wood smoke contributes about 10 per cent of total fine particulate matter in the air.

Last winter saw some days of poor air quality in Langley and Chilliwack when fine particulate levels exceeded the region's daily target limit, according to the staff report.

There's no proof household wood burning was directly responsible, it adds, but says it was a contributing factor.

There were also "numerous occasions" throughout the lower Fraser Valley when particulate spiked during cold evenings, but the readings, when averaged out over 24 hours, were not high enough to exceed the daily maximums.

Despite tougher provincial requirements for the sale of new fireplaces and stoves, many older models still exist.

Metro fields plenty of complaints about household burning.

But air quality district director Ray Robb said enforcement is tricky – authorities can only inspect the premises with the owner's permission and it's tough to prove a particular home's chimney is the source of local pollution without setting up expensive monitoring equipment.

"It's one of those divisive issues," Robb said, adding the regional district is caught between those asserting their right to breathe and their right to burn.

Leading the call for a crackdown is Vancouver resident Vicki Morell, who has launched an online petition urging tougher bylaws in light of the health hazard wood smoke poses.

"This is the new second-hand smoke," she says. "People need to know how bad it is."

She cites U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that wood smoke poses a 12 times greater lifetime cancer risk than exposure to the same volume of tobacco smoke.

Fine particulate can penetrate deep into the lungs . Effects can range from coughing and irritated eyes to asthma, bronchitis and reduced lung function.

Morell has battled one neighbour who burns wood in a fireplace and a second who burns even during summer months using a chiminea on his deck.

"We can't open a window let alone a door without being invaded by the foul stench of smoke," Morell said.

Authorities are powerless to intervene, she said, and the local offenders continue to belch, spewing verbal abuse at anyone who objects.

Morell believes the use of wood heat by those who have fireplaces will climb this winter in response to higher heating fuel prices unless action is taken.

Robb said Metro Vancouver is exploring three main options:

• Public education on proper fuels and operation;

• Offering incentives to persuade owners to replace existing fireplaces and stoves with new, cleaner burning models;

• Tougher regulations.

Robb said enforcement could pose a challenge even if recommendations coming back from a consultant suggest tightened bylaws are in order. That study is to be complete by the end of this year.

Metro has applied to join a provincial wood stove exchange program that would subsidize the installation of fireplace inserts here that promise to cut fine particulate emissions by 70 per cent.

Current Metro Vancouver bylaws bar fireplace users from burning anything other than wood, paper or natural gas, and that burning be in line with "recommended operating procedures and in a manner which minimizes emissions."