PGAQ #46 by Vic Steblin, Nov 20, 2008

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

Type a few keywords like “wood smoke health issues” into a Google computer search and get a site like “Burning Issues.org”. Read a few accounts and try to decide if these stories are biased. Maybe there is some underlying truth to all these accounts because of the principle “Where there is smoke, there is fire”.

Under the scientific preface one reads that “A single fireplace operating for an hour and burning 10 pounds of wood during that time will generate 4300 times more carcinogenic polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons than 30 cigarettes. Fortunately most of the pollutant emissions go up the person’s chimney, but with low wind speeds on cold winter nights, the emitted plumes hug the ground for hours. Soon the particles penetrate into the neighbour’s homes, reaching about half the concentration indoors as outdoors. A home with a single wood burning source can elevate indoor particle concentrations at hundreds of surrounding homes in the neighbourhood. etc.”

Scan through the many sidebar topics ranging from medical effects, fact sheets to personal stories and one gets a sense that it is just wrong to burn anything. A wonderful quote from the philosopher Schopenhauer summarizes the idea that “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” The same might happen with burning wood.