PGAQ #69 by Vic Steblin, Dec 23, 2008

2570 Laurier Crescent, Prince George, BC, 250-564-1123

A Citizen newspaper article from December 23, 2008 titled “100 million Americans breathing bad air:EPA” claimed that “More than 100 million people living in 46 metropolitan areas of the United States are breathing air that has become fouled with soot and now those cities are being told to clean up their air.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it added 15 cities to the sooty air list, mostly in states not usually thought of as pollution-prone, such as Alaska, Utah, Idaho and Wisconsin. That probably is because of the prevalence of wood stoves in western and northern regions, a top EPA official said.

Fine particles from diesel-burning trucks, power plants and wood burning stoves, often called soot, can cause breathing and heart problems.

Part of the results can be blamed on tougher standards which now include areas that previously met lower standards but the recent encouragement to burn wood and pellets results in more bad air.

Let us remind people that the burning of wood is not acceptable when close to others. Businesses that promote wood-based burning must have opposing arguments and people must have economical alternatives to wood heat.