Citizens for Environmental Health Website. Why is wood smoke, a serious and deadly toxic carcinogenic neighbourhood pollutant, allowed? Because people don’t know.
Wood Smoke Pollution: Neighbors Suffer Neighbors of wood-burning households frequently experience worsened health and a reduced quality of life. This page from the Doctors and Scientist against Wood Smoke Pollution website shares personal stories about how wood smoke has affected people's health and lifestyle. Breathe Clean Air Comox Valley - Personal Stories "I moved to Cumberland 12 years ago and the very first winter I noticed a deterioration in my respiratory health; it continued from year to year. After about four years living here I started getting asthma, and each year it got worse. I have had pneumonia numerous times and coughed so badly once I gave myself a hernia which I had to have repaired. (I don’t ever remember living in a place where so many people of any age get pneumonia. I’ve never been troubled with it prior to moving here). .... if I had known what the air quality was actually like beforehand, I never would have moved here (none of the scientific data and information currently available was available at the time I moved here). Wood Stove Smoke Is Killing Us. Winter cold has set in, and smoke curls skyward from my neighbor's chimney. Once, I would have found that charming. No longer. Now I know that his smoke is making me sick. For starters, wood smoke causes heart disease, irregular heartbeat, lung cancer, and emphysema. I'm not alone in waking up to these hazards: Cities from Paris to Montreal to Tacoma are responding with restrictions aimed at wood-burning ... Each fall, the return of my childhood asthma coincides with the first smoke from my neighbor's chimney. I thought that shutting my windows might shield me. But studies show that more than half of the smallest particles in smoke find their way inside, despite sealed windows. Court finds Wood Smoke Hazardous to Health Wood smoke from a neighbor’s stove can be more than just an annoyance. It can be a threat to health and to enjoyment of property. In February 2008, the Supreme Court of Ontario found that Brenda and David Deumo of Hamilton, Ontario had suffered harm “severe enough to deprive [them] of the ability to stay outdoors in their yard, or to go to the house and leave the windows open. It even caused them some disturbance when the windows were closed. It was a severe interference with the use and enjoyment of the property.” The judge ordered $270,000 in damages and legal costs. He also continued an injunction forbidding their neighbors, the Fitzpatricks, from using a wood burning stove in their garage. Senate Inquiry. Submissions reporting health effects of other people's woodsmoke Tasmania. "Our child has a serious and chronic asthma condition for which daily steroid medications are required to keep her alive. During winter, the condition is aggravated by the cold air and the increase in wood smoke and associated particulate matter. Constant wood smoke from neighbouring properties has a direct impact on our daughterʼs health (sub 90)." Coastal NSW. "We have neither ice nor snow nor temperatures below freezing point at any time of year. I have lived here for more than sixty years, always enjoying good health.............until neighbours installed woodheaters … I have never smoked in my life yet have been diagnosed with a health issue which is smoke related (sub 123)." Rural Victoria. "Our family unit was at this time healthy, happy and fully involved in life and community. On moving into the Shire we discovered our life and health was about to be burdened with up to 9 months a year with dreadful acrid smoky air from the wood heaters and open air burning from homes in our suburb.Upon moving to the smoky environment, our daughter, aged 5, suddenly had breathing problems which she had never experienced before and was diagnosed with asthma (at a time when many children are growing out of asthma!) which has remained with her to the present day (sub39)." Sydney "We are an elderly couple, both with compromised lung function, and we are unfortunate enough to live next door to a newly installed wood burner that keeps us indoors in a sealed home for the whole winter" (sub 119). Melbourne "If it is a still winter day, the smoke sits like a fog around our house. I have two children, 5 years and 8 years. Both my children have developed asthma and one of my children (8 years) has had a number of respiratory problems which has resulted in five operations (grommets x 3, adenoids, tonsils). The poor night time breathing of our eldest child has been very concerning at times. It has involved countless doctors and specialist appointments and overnight monitoring of her breathing. She has three burst ear drums from repeat ear infections. The asthma has also restricted their participation in sport (sub 134).
Appeals to Local Councils & other efforts fail to solve the problems Tasmania. "On a daily basis there is considerable visible smoke emitted from their chimney, which is clearly in breach of state regulations, yet penalties have never been applied because it is too hard to measure compliance and enforcement is historically non-existent" (sub 90). Rural Victoria. "We have spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to deal with the issues, trying to seal doors and windows better (yet trapping the toxins inside our home when there is seldom a pollution-free timeslot to open any windows!), adding a whole-of-house ventilation system which has turned out to be ineffective while smoke can still seep through the tiniest cracks and crevices which are present even in a modern home."(sub39) Melbourne. "I asked if (Council’s) environmental officers could explain the health effects of wood smoke to my neighbours. The chief officer explained that this was not their role and that they were not instructed by the Victorian EPA to do this – instead their function was solely about correct operation of wood heaters. The council was not able to help any further, and unfortunately the chief environmental officer took offence at what he considered my criticism of their response, and became defensive and difficult. I stopped requesting their involvement. I got the impression that they would have marked this down as another ‘case solved’ in their reporting on the issue" (sub 134). Armidale. "My concern is that wood smoke pollution is a serious health problem that has not been sufficiently addressed to date. It affects me personally by exacerbating my asthma, even when I am indoors in my home which I seal to the best of my ability in an effort to keep wood smoke out" (sub 153).Pittwater. 1st family: "After exhaustive attempts to try to remedy the situation and upon advice from GP’s and specialist medical practitioners I was finally forced to sell my home and move (see description, right had column)." Pittwater. 2nd family: "We contacted the Pittwater Council requesting that they take action to require the neighbour to mitigate his wood smoke pollution and raise the height of his chimney. The staff seemed more concerned about the neighbour’s right to have a wood burner than our health. They declined to take any action." Western Australia. "Obviously these guidelines don't work in our instance and neither my Council or neighbour are prepared to go any further to ease this situation" (description, right hand column). "I am 73 years old and suffer from C.O.P.D. (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). I am on home oxygen for approximately 16-18 hours a day. I lead as full a life as possible in order to remain connected to the community and it is important given my lung condition that I remain as active as possible in order to keep my lungs functioning to a level that will make my life liveable and maintain my independence.
"However, many of the activities I enjoy in summer are curtailed in winter, which in turn has an adverse effect on my health. Due to the pollution during winter and in particular, wood smoke, my breathing difficulties are exacerbated. There are a number of homes using wood heating in my area, which means that I can’t leave windows open in my house because smoke, even if I can’t see it, is evident by my limited breathing capacity. Therefore I need to use more oxygen, via an oxygen concentrator, in order to breathe. This increased dependence on oxygen limits the time I can be away from home, and seriously limits my social contacts.... To quote the Lung Foundation; “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters”. Tuggeranong resident
“As a child and teenager I had sarcoidosis of the lungs leading to other long-term health issues best dealt with by healthy living. As often as possible I like to exercise in fresh-air. In the mid 1970’s I moved to the Tuggeranong Valley with its mountain views and clean air. Now, under certain atmospheric conditions, the smell of wood smoke is acrid. During the wood smoke season I experience coarse irritation and burning sensations in the upper respiratory tract, sinus and eyes. This noticeably disrupts my social activities, reading and work. The sooty particles also deposit on the roof and bonnet of my car.” Campbell resident “Our members are particularly affected by air pollution in the cooler months. The smell of wood smoke makes it hard to breathe, and limits the time our members can be outside and the activities they can be involved in. When their breathing is affected by smoke, it can be hard for them to look after their active young children or grand children.
"In most cases in our group, people affected by wood smoke have modified their lives, sealed their houses as well as they can, and limited the activities they do. But that shouldn't have to happen.
"It is a worry to us that wood smoke affects the lungs so that they are not working as effectively. We also know that each time we are affected - and maybe even hospitalised - our lung function decreases. We already have breathing difficulties and do not want to exacerbate it.” Statement from the Canberra Lung Life Support Group
“Particle pollution from all sources, and especially from wood smoke, is harmful to our lungs.... Over many years, exposure has similar long-term consequences to environmental tobacco smoke, including the risk of lung cancer and heart disease.” – Dr James Markos, Australian Lung Foundation
“Smoke from wood fires can have a significant health impact particularly in people with pre-existing lung conditions. Pollution adversely affects asthmatics, particularly children, and it also has a significant impact on people with Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis (COPD).
"This effect on COPD was very well shown in Launceston and reducing the number of wood fires there has been of significant benefit. It would be good if we could do the same in the ACT. ”
Dr Mark Hurwitz, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at The Canberra Hospital
“Wood smoke contains particulate matter and gaseous pollutants such as carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen which adversely affect respiratory health.
" Wood smoke exposure can cause acute exacerbations in people with asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Further, wood smoke exposure can initiate cough and chronic bronchitis and also may affect the normal lung development in children.
"Minimizing wood smoke exposure for Australian communities will have a positive impact on current & future health of those communities.” Professor Richard Ruffin AM, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Adelaide
“Smoke from wood heaters … is a real and significant health hazard…[we] recommend using alternative methods for climate control.” The Australian Lung Foundation
“Exposure to wood smoke can cause significant breathing problems for people with asthma. We support working with the community to minimise exposure to wood smoke to help people breathe better.”
Debra Kay, CEO Asthma Australia
Instead of trying to provide assistance to people whose health as been affected by woodsmoke, the AHHA broke the political funding laws by spending $60,776.78 campaigning against the Greens at the ACT election. “Example of Armidale residents who did not know that woodsmoke was affecting their children's health until they moved house." We lived for fifteen years in Allingham St, between Brown
and Mann. From two years of age my daughter suffered respiratory illness every
year. It started in early May each year approximately two weeks after wood
fires were lit, and continued until the end of winter when the fires stopped. This
occurred until my daughter was twelve years old, which is when we moved to a
house above the smoke line on South hill. Since then she has not suffered from
the same respiratory illness. It just stopped! We did not have to go to the
Doctor or buy any more medication .During the same time my son suffered from a
persistant cough during winters, this also stopped when we moved house. Note
our Allingham St house was heated by a wood fire our new house is not.
Otherwise nothing changed We have always had a good diet and
our children participated in several sports. The only thing that changed was
our moving out of a house that had a wood heater in an area that was in a heavy
smoke zone into a non wood heated house out of the smoke zone. Note our decision to move house was not driven to get out of the smoke, but we were surprised in the dramatic change in our children’s health when we did. (Submission on Armidale's Air Quality Policy, April 2010)
Experiences and a wood smoke success story from the US A Victim of Woodsmoke Pollution. Energy Justice Network. May 2014. In 2000, we bought a home to enjoy our retirement in. It was perfect for us! Little did we know that, in 2002, our lives would be changed dramatically! Beginning in 2002, our home became surrounded and infiltrated by wood smoke from our neighbour. ... We were fortunate enough to have the means to seek legal help. Remember that there was no provincial or municipal authority which we could turn to for help. In the end, the burning was ended permanently and he or anyone else that ever owns that property can never burn again. What does it feel like to be vulnerable to air pollution? Let me tell you my story… Like most of us, I love the ambiance created by a fireplace or wood stove, but the EPA estimates that a single fireplace operating for an hour and burning 10 pounds of wood will generate 4,300 times more of certain carcinogens than 30 cigarettes. None of us want to send a kid — or a pregnant woman! September 2015. Study of the health effects of using wood stoves. Families living near Missoula, US, with woodstoves and young children asked to help out with air quality study This study will test different exposure reduction strategies in households that use wood stoves for home heating and evaluate the impact on respiratory function. The choking side of wood burning. P. Vogan's letter to the Cowichan Valley Citizen, March 2017. "I look out over the smoky haze in my neighbourhood as I gasp for breath, wheezing and coughing and feeling like I am drowning. Eventually my heart is pounding so hard I head for the emergency department. While I am waiting to be seen a mother brings in a child in obvious respiratory distress. When I am seen by the emergency room doctor he gives me a prescription for an inhaler. I get the prescription filled; it costs over $100. It is now evening. While I spent the day at the hospital my neighbours have been happily saving a few bucks burning unseasoned wood they picked up on the side of the road. One neighbour is even burning landscaping wood chips — hey they are even cheaper than wood. The smoke is still billowing from his chimney as the cool fog settles in and holds this toxic mix at ground level. "The cost: thousands of dollars of taxpayer money towards the cost of health care, thousands of dollars in prescriptions, the cost of watching as your child or loved one drowns in their own mucous. "Why: so you can save a few bucks on your Hydro bill or not have to go to the dump with your refuse. "Hardly seems fair to me, but hey, this is the Cowichan Valley, where your child is 75 per cent more likely to get asthma and burning wood is your right." | Lisa Neville: Please Help Stop Wood-smoke Impacting on My Already Inflamed Airways. Residents of a coastal city, north of Sydney complained repeatedly to the local Council for many years regarding neighbours who continually bathe them with their dangerous and putrid wood smoke. These offending chimneys are located very close and downhill to their home. To date they have received no satisfactory outcome in relation to our many complaints. Western Australia. For the past 2.5 months there has been constant smoke emitted for about 6 hours + a day. It often pours out at 4am as they leave the fire to burn out. Resident, who is new to the area, is told that the neighbour burns wood approx. 8 months of the year. He has tried to oblige by extending his chimney. "My son and I live with windows and doors shut, washing drying inside on sunny days and an air purifier operating inside. I have had two chest infections this winter to date with my son wheezing. I can't remember the last time I had a chest infection. "I contacted the local council health inspector (department responsible for WA residential) who came and inspected and reported my neighbour is doing all that is required. He will not visit out of business hours to watch the smoke in the evening nor will my neighbour come over and see and smell what we experience. These "guidelines" may be general but how are the individual design of homes in proximity to each other with individual wind patterns get taken into consideration with these guidelines. Obviously these guidelines don't work in our instance and neither my Council or neighbour are prepared to go any further to ease this situation. My neighbour cites he has done all he can and there is no law to stop him." Residents of Pittwater, Sydney, forced to move home because of wood heaters installed in 2008 WHAT TWO OTHER PITTWATER RESIDENTS DID TO COMBAT WOOD SMOKE POLLUTION INVADING THEIR HOME Our next door neighbour installed a new and approved wood burning heater in 2010. His house is single story and the flue for the new heater barely rises above his eaves, sitting below his own ridge line and well below our upstairs bedroom window. The smoke from this flue immediately entered most rooms of our old, renovated house. My wife’s asthma was triggered by the smoke and last winter she developed bronchitis and needed multiple treatments with antibiotics. We had to act. Listed below is what we have done, so far:
The approximate costs of these measures were. We only took these steps after exploring all of the negotiating and regulatory avenues we could find.
We are now pleased that we took the actions outlined above, even though it has cost us much more than we wished to spend. We still get some smoke inside on very windy nights and during periods of high pollution but it is greatly reduced. However, we would dearly love to again turn on our gas log fire, be able to open a bedroom window at night, enter through our front door and to tend our garden during the winter. We intend to continue lobbying the authorities, at all levels, to ban the installation new wood burning heaters in urban areas and to work towards phasing out existing ones. PLEASE REMEMBER YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL IN NSW HAS THE POWER TO REGULATE WOOD SMOKE POLLUTERS BY ISSUING SMOKE ABATEMENT ORDERS OR EVEN CESSATION ORDERS. WE HOPE YOURS WILL BE MORE ENLIGHTENED AND CONCERNED ABOUT COMMUNITY HEALTH THAN OURS. Residents of Pittwater Local Government Area, NSW One comment on the debate about wood stoves in Parksville, Canada, says: "I began to notice the smoke-filled neighbourhood. Costs were rising and my old bad back sent a "find another way" message. "For about $3,000 a heat pump was installed that easily warmed the area the wood stove once heated. And the cost is only about $10-$15 per month over previous hydro bills. So I figure to save about $600+ per year over firewood. Plus it's debris and dust free, very quiet and needs no chimney cleaning." As reported on the NSW EPA website, the updated Australian/New Zealand standards (published in August 2014) introduce a staged approach to setting particle emission and thermal efficiency limits for wood heaters:
A heater burning Sydney's average of about 2 tonnes per year and satisfying the "standard" listed above of lab-test emissions of 2.5 g/kg (and expected real-life emissions of 16.4 kg PM2.5 per year) will have expected health costs of $4,307 per year (using the estimate of $263 per kg of PM2.5 emissions in the Federal Government's wood heater Consultation Regulation Impact Statement, CRIS). Port Coquitlam, Metro Vancouver, Canada. Homeowner says emissions from a neighbourhood chimney are making him sick. Jan 2013 Wood-burning heating devices could pose serious health risks "Their next-door neighbors used to heat their home with wood throughout the entire winter, and the constant smoke that traveled to the O'Link's home all those years became a nuisance. That nuisance may be the primary factor behind Jamie's health problems. Earlier this year during her annual physical, her doctor had some bad news. "She basically told me I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," Jaime said. Her doctor told her that it was more commonly known as emphysema, and that Jamie had to stop smoking. "But I don't smoke," Jaime told her doctor. |