Press release - Wood Smoke is a Serious Health Hazard
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wood Smoke is a Serious Health Hazard
(April
6, 2017, Vancouver, British Columbia)— Vicki Morell feels like a prisoner
in her own home. And she warns that if it happened to her and her family, it
can happen to you too.
The
misery began 12 years ago when wood smoke from a neighbour’s fireplace began to
permeate the Morell family’s home. The smoke gives Morell headaches and causes
burning eyes and other health effects. “My wood-burning neighbours have told me
that it is their right to burn wood,” said Morell. "But what about my
right to breathe fresh clean air in my own home? I don’t understand why the
right to burn wood outweighs another’s right to breathe clean air.”
Morell
used to think that closing windows would keep out the wood smoke, but she soon
discovered that she was wrong. Wood smoke particles are far smaller than the
width of a human hair — so tiny that, research has shown, the insides of
nearby houses can wind up having nearly 80% of the outside level of wood smoke.
If someone living near you burns wood, it is virtually impossible to keep their
wood smoke out of your home.
Morell’s
experience led her to establish the Canadian Clean Air Alliance in 2007, which
has brought together people across Canada who are also plagued by wood smoke
pollution in their neighbourhoods.
And
now this past year Morell and a group of concerned Canadians have joined up
with a new science-based international coalition, Doctors and
Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution (DSAWSP).
One
of DSAWSP's founding board members is Dr. Michael Mehta, Professor of
Geography and Environmental Studies at Thompson Rivers University. According to
Mehta, many people are still not aware that wood burning is a significant
health and environmental hazard. He says that DSAWSP was formed to bring
the medical and scientific research on wood burning to the general public and
to advocate for legal and regulatory protections for neighbours of wood-burning
households and businesses.
Modern
society has made great strides in eliminating the health hazards of secondhand
cigarette smoke, but little has been done to protect people from secondhand
wood smoke, even though research suggests that wood smoke may be even more
hazardous to human health. Change-out programs of old wood stoves for new ones
provide little health protection for the money invested, and may even be
counterproductive. Certified wood stoves in actual in-home usage have been
shown in multiple studies to be far more polluting than their certification
levels suggest, and to release even higher levels of some toxins than older
wood stoves.
According
to DSAWSP’s board chair, Utah-based physician Dr. Brian Moench, “Burning ten pounds of
wood releases as many toxic chemicals as 6,000 packs of cigarettes. For far too
long, wood burning has been given an undeserved free ride by
many government agencies. It’s time for the global community
to embrace the urgency to eliminate wood burning wherever
possible.” For more information on Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke
Pollution and on the health and environmental hazards of wood burning, see
DSAWSP’s website at woodsmokepollution.org.
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