Environmentalist's Profile

Display Name:	Environmentalist
Member Since:	3/24/09

Are all of these comments spam? For non-spam comments, please email us at help@apartmenttherapy.com

Latest Comments...

Think of a 100 g jar of instant coffee - that's the amount of sticky, tarry particles (all so tiny they bypass the natural filters in our bodies and penetrate the deepest recesses of our lungs) emitted every day by even a so called "clean efficient, modern wood burning furnace" or USEPA-certified stove.

Simple filtrations systems wouldn't work, Heatherbelle. It's pretty hard to imagine any filtration system able to cope with 100 grams of sticky, tarry mess every day. The stuff is pretty toxic even to handle, let alone breathe. Tumor-initiation tests on mice (and Ames tests using bacteria) found wood smoke was 12 times as harmful as the same quantity of cigarette smoke.

Far better to prepare for a power outage every 5-10 years by keeping a small gas cylinder (and heater that can use it) in reserve, than exposing ourselves to the toxins in wood smoke.

Here's an example of a town that hasn't controlled wood smoke and a local doctor is advising residents with respiratory problems to move out of town
http://blogs.abc.net.au/nsw/2008/07/smoke-gets-in-y.html?program=new_england_mornings

Surely it’s better to fall out of love with wood stoves, than force people to drive long distances to preserve their health.

Apartment Therapy Chicago | Wood Burning Fireplace Ban in Montreal? Montreal Gazette

3/24/09 9:39 PM

The Australian study was very superficial and ignored methane from burning wood.

A Scandinavian study did much more detailed research and measured emissions from a range of stoves. Those measurements showed that a smoky wood stove can cause twice as much global warming just from methane emissions as heating two similar houses with oil. That's on top of the toxic fine particle pollution - more than would be emitted by 200 passenger cars.

Wood stoves also increase global warming because neighbours are forced to move out of town to avoid the smoke from other peoples' stoves (many doctors recommend this) and drive long distances to work. Other neighbours have to increase electricity use to run fans and filters, drive to doctor’s surgeries to get treatment for illnesses caused by wood smoke, and dry clothes indoors because they smell like a cigarette factory if hung outside on the washing line.

For the sake of our health and the climate, we should all fall out of love with fireplaces. But that doesn't mean we can't use wood as a renewable fuel. Domestic stoves may cause more global warming than oil or gas, but combined heat and power stations (cogeneration or trigeneration) are designed for high, temperature efficient burning and can be fitted with filters so that they can heat and power 100 houses for the same pollution as 1 domestic wood stove.

The real battle is ignorance. If people knew that even the new EPA-certified wood stoves emit as much toxic fine particle pollution as 100 cars, hardly anyone would use them. No need to argue, just work together to save the planet!

Apartment Therapy Re-Nest | Wood Burning Fireplace Ban in Montreal? Montreal Gazette

3/24/09 8:40 PM