WPLN News Archive; 04 Wood Fire Pollution (Adrienne) 1 8 99; News Archive 1/8/99-2/5/99

and floyd smith has been such a problem in the pacific northwest that it's one of the worst environmental offenders are the problem isn't nearly as bad in tennessee residential when snow is a major contributor of particulate pollution particulate matter or so words it's very small solid particles that get into the air alan jones is the executive director of the tennessee environmental council he says tennessee is in compliance with environmental protection agency's current air quality standards but he points out that they issue tougher guidelines for particulate pollution last july the purest the us open new monitoring network to determine which areas have levels of particulate matter above this new tighter standard and then will know whether or not we have a particulate matter problems that we may not now know about jones says preserving the quality of air is increasingly becoming the responsibility of the individual we all have pleasant memories and thoughts associate with fireplaces so it's a little bit of a touchy issue and that's what you get into when you

start talking about environmental problems these days and how solving them is going to require us to think about perhaps adjust our lifestyle it's not only the quality of the air outside that affected by wood smoke wood has hundreds of chemical compounds and many of those are toxic architect ron gobble is on the board of directors of the american lung association his firm released a book on indoor air quality the potential for getting those howls of internally and hoover's mortal danger mouse version of twitter he says that even the occasional fire can create air quality problems if the fireplace or wood burning stove doesn't have a proper ventilation system the smoke that backs up and cause serious damage toxicologist greg both is vice president of environmental health and safety with double his partners we had one case a slasher we look where there was of a black particular deposit every warehouse and it was running carpets in paintings and we discovered that the black because it was

why was it would without proper ventilation it's possible for wood burning fires to produce lethal carbon monoxide gas gobble notes that because homes built in recent years tend to be better insulated that old homes it's more necessary to ensure an escape path for this love steve emerson all the chickeny service called jimmy mastered he's created a buildup of ashes in a fireplace the force with enough to flow from smaller goals of the flu the smoke vincent has a smoke and insist on the flute tells of the passageway authentic family of bills a sort of liars and every one of you home fires created by the creosote or other oils that build up in the chilean the sparkle set them on fire and just burn the whole house down both lived in denver for several years he's witnessed the polluting effects of wood smoke and advises burning only properly ventilated paper and hard dried wanted to lessen the damage to air quality in the denver area there were many days

where you could actually have unilateral infrared detectors warning a match germany's to see if they if someone was burning farm they shouldn't be and you could be fined because of the particles put into the air he also warns against anything else and the home if you were to throw things like wall so any clothes like they're on fire you can produce some off getting such as honey and cyanide to reduce sulfur dioxide through all of those are toxic if they get to the right by concentrations in the home if you would throw anything on there which would have paid for a minute you can produce also small moscow a gas called fighting which was used or work to do as a nerve gas the best way to reduce emissions from wood burning fires is to buy a new epa certified woodstove an alternative is to install a catalytic combust are in an old style they improved can best efficiency by burning particulate matter and other gases before they skate up the stove pipe it's

also important to allow enough room for air to circulate in the fireplace because smoldering fire give off more pollution than smaller potter fighters too keep our airplane so that everybody can have a decent quality of life we're all have to do our share with those precautions jones points out everyone should be other to stave off the show for national public radio i mean oh man