WOOD SMOKE POLLUTION INVADING YOUR HOME?  – WHAT TWO PITTWATER RESIDENTS DID TO COMBAT IT.

 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:

1. Turned off our own externally flued gas heater This was drawing in outside air to sustain combustion. (about 6m3 of air per hour when running at 26Mj). The smoke was entrained in this air. This action significantly reduced the quantity of smoke entering our rooms, particularly on those very cold, still nights when it would hang around near ground level enveloping ours and nearby houses.
   

2. Applied Moroday Multi-Seal Dust Exclusion Tape around all swing doors and hopper windows. This reduced the amount of wind driven smoke entering through gaps around these openings, but failed to seal the gaps around our casement windows, French doors and double swing front door.
   

3. Sealed closed with masking tape those doors and windows that wouldn’t seal with the Moroday tape.
   

4. Installed Reverse Cycle, Split System, Inverter Controlled Air Conditioning in the main bedroom, study and living area. Three separate units of 3, 5, and 7KW of heating easily replaced the gas heater, and, our Panasonics actually seem to deodorise any smoke still entering. (Not sure if they actually remove the PM2.5s) Due to their flexibility these may be cheaper to operate than the gas fire if we are careful to switch them off in vacant rooms.
   

5. Fitted Expol Underfloor Insulation to prevent outside air and smoke entering our living room area through the cracks between the boards of our polished floors, downstairs. This product was relatively easy to fit and it seems to work. It has the added advantage of reducing the heating requirements.
   

The approximate costs of these measures were.
Air conditioning supply and install:                                    $7,100
Sealers                                                                           $    80
Underfloor insulation –self installed                                  $   420

 We only took these steps after exploring all of the negotiating and regulatory avenues we could find.

• We approached the neighbour. He was not interested in our problems with his pollution.
• We contacted the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (previously DECCW). They referred us to Pittwater Council as the local consent authority and sent us some useful literature but confirmed that they have no power to take action against domestic wood smoke polluters.
• 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.    
•  We again contacted Council and the Mayor citing continued concerns about the affects of the smoke on my wife’s health .They invited us to take photos and referred us to the NSW Protection of the Environment and Operations Act 1997, Div 3, Clause 135. “Definition of Excessive Smoke” which states “excessive smoke  means the emission of a visible plume of smoke for a period of not less than 10 minutes, including a period of not les than 30 seconds when the plume extends at least 10metres from the point at which the smoke is emitted from the chimney”. Council ignored the fact that it is very difficult to take photos of smoke at night and in any case most modern wood heaters emit very little visible smoke - just lots of the toxic PM2.5 particulates.
• We referred Council’s failure to enforce a section of its own DCP to the Ombudsman. He followed up but relied on “Council’s View” of the case. Amazing!
• We contacted our local MP and the Ministers for Environment and Health. The MP was helpful but no result.
• We even contacted the neighbour again and offered to pay for his chimney to be raised. He declined.

 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