PGAQ #22 (FP) by Vic Steblin, March 11, 2008

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

The BC Government has announced that new tobacco laws will apply as of March 31, 2008. The goal is to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke and to place important limits on how tobacco is sold and promoted in BC. All indoor public places, work places, restaurants, common areas in apartment buildings and hotels, transit shelters, etc must be smoke-free. There must be a 3 metre smoke-free zone around public doorways, windows and air intakes.

What about wood smoke? Each burner, no matter how efficient, can produce many times more particles than a smoker. During calm, cold, inversion conditions, that smoke fills all the above mentioned places until a clearing wind blows it away. Doesn’t this wood smoke also violate non-smokers rights to clean air?

Why does our government discourage tobacco smoke and then encourage wood burning through programs like the Community Energy System? This seems hypocritical. Smoke is generally bad from any source, but tradition and history says that wood smoke is OK. This tradition and history of wood smoke being OK must be changed. The new tobacco laws should also apply to wood burners. Prince George with its sensitive air shed should ban wood burners.