Wood Smoke Update
http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/roc
IARC report excepted:
Wood dust is known to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in humans. An association between wood dust exposure and cancer of the nasal cavity has been observed in many case reports, cohort studies, and case-control studies that specifically addressed nasal cancer. Strong and consistent associations with cancer of the nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses were observed both in studies of people whose occupations are associated with wood dust exposure and in studies that directly estimated wood dust exposure. Risks were highest for adenocarcinoma, particularly among European populations. Studies of U.S. populations showed similar significant positive associations. A pooled analysis of 12 case-control studies showed that the estimated relative risk of adenocarcinoma was very high (45.5) among men with the greatest exposure and that the risk increased with duration of exposure (Demers et al. 1995). The association between wood dust exposure and elevated nasal cancer risk in a large number of independent studies and with many different occupations in many countries strongly supports the conclusion that the increased risk is caused by wood dust rather than by simultaneous exposure(s) to other substances, such as formaldehyde or wood preservatives. Other types of nasal cancer (squamous-cell carcinoma of the nasal cavity) and cancer at other sites, including cancer of the nasopharynx and larynx and Hodgkin?s disease, have been associated with exposure to wood dust in several epidemiologic studies. However, these findings were positive in some, but not all, studies, and the overall epidemiologic evidence is not strong enough or consistent enough to allow firm conclusions about the role of wood dust exposure in the development of cancer at these other sites (IARC 1995, NTP 2000).
Burning wood indoors linked to cancer risk
Nov 29, 2006
PARIS – Smoke from burning wood or stir-frying food indoors could potentially cause cancer and people in poor countries are at most risk, research showed on Wednesday.
Scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said indoor emissions from burning biomass fuel — such as wood, charcoal and dung — as well as emissions from high-temperature frying, could lead to cancer.
Estimates are that about half the world’s population uses wood or coal for cooking and heating, often in poorly ventilated spaces.
“It is therefore of enormous public health importance that we call attention to the health risks of what is daily practice for so many people,” Dr Peter Boyle, of the Lyon-based IARC, said in a statement.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90 percent of households use solid fuels such as wood, according to the study, while stir-frying, deep-frying and pan-frying, which involve heating oil to high temperatures, are most common in East Asia.
The summary of the IARC study was published online by the Lancet Oncology journal. The results will also be presented at the Society for Risk analysis annual meeting in the United States.
Wood smoke education backed, not ‘fireplace cops’
Wood smoke education backed, not ‘fireplace cops’
January 6, 2006
Terri Hardy
Terri Hardy
Sacramento City Council members balked Thursday at regulating wood-burning fireplaces and agreed to wait for state environmental regulators to continue studying the issue.
“We’re not going to have fireplace cops driving up and down the streets looking for smoke,” said Councilman Robbie Waters.
The council’s law and legislation subcommittee instead directed city staff members to work with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District to educate the public about health problems associated with fireplace smoke.
Councilman Kevin McCarty, who brought the issue to the subcommittee, testified that the particulate matter from wood-burning fireplaces is dangerous.
McCarty said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research found wood smoke is 12 times more likely to cause cancer than tobacco smoke, and breathing the microscopic particles can be especially harmful to the elderly and young children.
“I had no idea of the dangers,” McCarty said. “This stuff is harmful to our health.”
Representatives from the air quality board and the American Lung Association said research is building on the pollution and health problems. They said the state and federal governments probably would step in with fireplace regulations in coming years.
Councilman Steve Cohn, a member of the subcommittee, said the city should work on public outreach and look into regulating wood-burning fireplaces in new homes.
“Clearly this is an important issue that we need to get a lot more serious about in this county,” Cohn said.
But others on the committee, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy and Waters, said an ordinance curtailing fireplace use was premature.
Any proposed ordinance would go to the full City Council for final approval. Some San Joaquin Valley communities already have such bans, with first-time violators issued $50 tickets.
All four members of the committee supported a public outreach campaign with the air quality board. The public would be asked to curb fireplace use when particulate levels are high – usually on foggy winter days.
Also, people would be educated about the health effects of wood smoke and cautioned about burning wrapping paper in a fireplace.
The committee also endorsed a plan by the air quality board to start a rebate program to replace non-EPA certified wood-burning inserts and other devices with low-polluting fireplace units.
Hidden cost in wood burning: Pollution
New popularity of stoves, fireplaces may be making air less healthy
New popularity of stoves, fireplaces may be making air less healthy
November 14, 2005
By Traci Watson
USA TODAY
By Traci Watson
USA TODAY
As soaring prices for oil and natural gas drive more Americans toward alternative fuels to stay warm this winter, environmental watchdogs are awakening to the unhealthy effects of the pollution from burning wood in the home.
Scientists have long known that wood smoke contains carbon monoxide and cancer-causing chemicals. But research shows that wood smoke’s major ingredient — tiny particles of soot and liquid pollution — worsens heart disease and triggers asthma attacks.
This “particle pollution,” also emitted by diesel engines, kills thousands of Americans a year. Alarmed by such findings, and required by federal law to cut particle pollution, officials across the USA are trying to reduce the smoke from the nation’s 37 million home chimneys and 10 million wood stoves.
Locales from Darrington, Wash. (pop. 1,500), to the greater Pittsburgh area are dangling incentives to anyone who junks a wood stove more than 13 years old. Some California towns are asking residents to forgo fires on highly polluted days. And seven Northern states want a federal crackdown on the latest wrinkle in wood power: heating systems that rely on water warmed by burning wood.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that wood stoves are responsible for 5% of the smallest, deadliest particles emitted in the USA. That’s not much, but many big industrial sources of particles are already working to clean up their emissions. As other sources cut back, “residential wood smoke becomes a very important source of (particle) pollution,” says Bill Wehrum, the EPA’s top air pollution official.
Economics are driving more Americans to wood, however. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted last month that Americans who heat their homes with natural gas will pay nearly 50% more this winter, while heating-oil users face a 32% rise.
The result: fat times for those who sell wood-burning appliances. Some pellet stoves, which burn nuggets of dried wood, are back-ordered 90 days, says John Crouch of the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association. Wood-stove dealer Stephen Magnotti of Pittsburgh says customers face five-week waits for a new model. And then there’s the fuel.
“We’ve seen firewood prices go up, and that’s if you can find firewood,” says Jasen Stock, director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association.
The return to wood-burning stoves could be especially bad news for the 200-plus counties where levels of particle pollution are higher than federal safety limits, such as Washoe County, Nev., home to Reno.
Susie Kapahee of the county’s air quality management district says she is “a little concerned” that particle pollution may be up because of higher fuel prices.
Kapahee and other environmental officials don’t worry much about new stoves, which boast either catalytic converters or combustion chambers designed to minimize soot. But a wood stove sold before stiffer regulations took effect in 1992 can emit as much pollution as seven diesel buses , says Guillermo Cole of the Allegheny County, Pa., Health Department.
Such older models account for three-quarters of the nation’s wood stoves.
A new wood appliance is also drawing complaints. Known as an outdoor wood boiler, it’s a shed where a wood fire heats water. Pipes carry the water into the home for heat and hot water.
More than 75,000 boilers, which have no pollution filters, have been sold nationally since 1999, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office. The smoke can be so thick that those living nearby, such as David Cole of Etna, N.H., must take extreme measures.
On some warm nights, “you have to go around the house closing the windows,” he says. This summer, he paid a neighbor’s hot-water bill to get the man to stop using his boiler.
The broader wood-smoke pollution problem becomes acute in winter. In some communities, mostly in the West, 30% to 80% of the wintertime particle pollution is attributed to wood burning in the home, regional and federal agencies say.
Some measures officials are taking:
•Mill Valley, Calif., recently banned the use of wood-burning appliances when air quality is bad. Other cities nearby have similar ordinances.
•The attorneys general of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Vermont petitioned the EPA in August to set limits on emissions from outdoor wood boilers. Vermont has proposed its own limits.
•Funded by the EPA and industry, stores in southwestern Pennsylvania offer discounts for replacing fireplaces or wood stoves with new, cleaner models.
The high cost of heating oil drove Traci and Duane Eger of North Fayette, Pa., to use the discount to replace their fireplace with a new wood stove.
“It’s an incredible amount of heat,” says Duane, yet “there’s no color to the smoke that comes out, because virtually everything ends up being burned.”
The only hitch, he says: “We’ll have to explain how Santa can make it through this device.”
Health Effects Of Wood Smoke
March 1997
According to the booklet posted at this official Washington State website, “EPA researchers suggest that the lifetime cancer risk from wood stove emissions may be 12 times greater than the lifetime cancer risk from exposure to an equal amount of cigarette smoke.” That’s right. Inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke at a bar is 12 times SAFER than spending an equal amount of time in a tobacco-free building that has a wood-burning stove!
Read http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/92046.pdf
March 1997
According to the booklet posted at this official Washington State website, “EPA researchers suggest that the lifetime cancer risk from wood stove emissions may be 12 times greater than the lifetime cancer risk from exposure to an equal amount of cigarette smoke.” That’s right. Inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke at a bar is 12 times SAFER than spending an equal amount of time in a tobacco-free building that has a wood-burning stove!
Read http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/92046.pdf
Burning Issues Wood Smoke Fact Sheets
(updated January 2003)
For more information and updates visit our website at: http://burningissues.org/
http://www.webcom.com/~bi/fact-sheet.htm
(updated January 2003)
For more information and updates visit our website at: http://burningissues.org/
http://www.webcom.com/~bi/fact-sheet.htm
Burning Issues
A project of Clean Air Revival, Inc.
Burning Issues provides public education about the medical hazards of exposure to wood smoke and other fine particulate pollution. Smoke from residential burning of wood and coal, wood burning restaurants and outdoor burning of wood, leaves, crops, tires and debris is permeating our neighborhoods, resulting in high ground-level concentrations of toxic air pollution.
http://www.webcom.com/~bi/welcome.html
A project of Clean Air Revival, Inc.
Burning Issues provides public education about the medical hazards of exposure to wood smoke and other fine particulate pollution. Smoke from residential burning of wood and coal, wood burning restaurants and outdoor burning of wood, leaves, crops, tires and debris is permeating our neighborhoods, resulting in high ground-level concentrations of toxic air pollution.
http://www.webcom.com/~bi/welcome.html
List of Wood Smoke Emissions
http://www.burningissues.org/pdfs/tablewoodsmokeweightnov02%20.pdf
http://www.burningissues.org/pdfs/tablewoodsmokeweightnov02%20.pdf
Shades of signs to come?
WOOD-BURNING STOVE FREE ZONE
PLEASE TAKE YOUR WOOD-BURNING STOVES OUTSIDE!
CAMPFIRES KILL!
LOGS = CANCER STICKS
Wood smoke may raise lung cancer risk
Wood smoke may raise lung cancer risk
July 12, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although tobacco smoke is the top cause of lung cancer, some cases of the disease can be traced to smoke of a different sort, according to a new study.
Researchers in Mexico found that of 62 lung cancer patients they assessed, more than one-third of the cases were associated with exposure to wood smoke. These patients, mainly women, were non-smokers who for years had used traditional wood-burning stoves that were not equipped with a chimney to funnel the smoke outdoors.
In many countries, wood and other solid fuels are still used for heating and cooking, and some studies have found potential health hazards. A study in Brazil showed that wood-burning stoves may raise the risk of mouth and throat cancers, while others have found that smoke from wood and other sources may contribute to chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma.
There has not, however, been sufficient evidence to tie wood smoke to lung cancer, according to the authors of the new study, led by Javier Delgado of the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Calzada de Tlalpan, Mexico.
Their study, published in the medical journal Chest, included 62 patients scheduled to undergo chemotherapy for lung cancer, as well as nine smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and nine healthy non-smokers with no exposure to wood smoke.
Overall, 39 percent of the lung cancer cases were associated with wood smoke, while 37 percent were linked to tobacco smoking. The rest could not be clearly tied to either.
An analysis of tumor samples from some patients showed that both wood smoke and tobacco smoke seemed to cause similar molecular changes. Patients in both groups showed, for example, increased activity in the tumor-suppressing p53 gene, the gene that is most commonly mutated in cancer.
“Our findings,” Delgado and his colleagues write, “suggest that wood smoke, like tobacco smoke, could be involved in lung cancer (development).”
It’s important, they add, to consider wood smoke exposure as a possible risk factor for the disease in non-smokers.
Of the 24 study patients with cancer associated with wood smoke, 22 were women living in rural, impoverished areas.
“In our country, women are exposed to wood smoke for many hours per day,” the study authors note. “That could explain the higher incidence of lung cancer associated with wood smoke in women.”
SOURCE: Chest, July 2005.
Wood smoke may raise lung cancer risk
Wood smoke may raise lung cancer risk
