Wood-burning fireplaces targeted as air polluters

By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The phrase “Oh and it has a fireplace!” may no longer pack the same kind of warm-and-fuzzies for Southern California residents.

That’s because a fire in the hearth may look good but scientists found it’s bad for the heart and lungs.

It’s also becoming illegal.

An onslaught of new research linking fireplace smoke with heart attacks and lung disease, coupled with stricter air regulations, daily bans on indoor and outdoor wood-burning and unusually warmer winters may soon erase that Norman Rockwell fireplace scene from real estate brochures.

 

 

Instead of archetypal images of families basking by the glow of a wood fire, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has released a video showing a child with asthma coughing while standing next to a roaring fire, said Michael Cacciotti, South Pasadena City Councilman and member of the SCAQMD governing board.

The air district’s “check before your burn” program says fireplace smoke could result in 5,000 premature deaths every year in Southern California. Wood burning creates on average 5 tons of insidious, unhealthful PM2.5 emissions each day in Southern California, about four times the amount of PM2.5 from all the power plants in SoCal. And that is in the summer when Southern Californians are accustomed to smog, a traditional air pollution made when stationary and vehicular emissions are cooked by the sun.

 

 

In winter, the number of PM2.5 emissions just from wood burning can peak at 10 tons per day in the Southland as more residents enjoy fireplace fires, the SCAQMD estimates. The presence of wood-burning particles creates a new kind of air pollution — winter smog — that experts say is entirely controllable by banning fires in fireplaces during low-inversion days in winter.

“As an advocate, you want to get the word out. Here is something the public can do to help,” said Joe Lyou, president of the Coalition for Clean Air, a Los Angeles-based organization encouraging clean air practices. “We don’t think about how individual actions can make a big difference. This is one the science says you can.”

 

INVISIBLE POLLUTANT

 

PM2.5 is the term for microscopic particulate matter that takes the form of soot or chemical droplets 2.5 microns in diameter — about the width of a human hair. These tiny pollutants invisible to the naked eye get sucked into the deepest part of the lungs, the alveoli, interfering with oxygen exchanges, causing lung disease, emergency room visits, heart attacks and even premature deaths.

New health studies show PM2.5 can escape the respiratory system and enter the bloodstream.

PM2.5 levels get worse in winter, when inversion layers are lower, trapping fireplace smoke and other components of PM from diesel trucks, port ships and refineries closer to the population.

 

 

When the SCAQMD issues “no-burn alerts” it means fireplace fires and any wood-burning is banned that day. Those who use wood to keep warm or who live in areas above 3,000 feet in elevation, such as mountain communities, are exempt.

Air districts in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and in China and Greece are asking the public not to burn wood. While it may seem a low-tech solution, it is a less expensive way to cut air emissions, said Philip Fine, SCAQMD assistant deputy executive officer.

 

 

“It is hard to tell what effect (the no-burn days) are having. It is not an easy determination to make. But most people aren’t burning wood for heat; it is mostly for ambiance. We don’t think it is so much of a burden to ask,” Fine said.

Although most Clean Air Act violations occur in the Mira Loma area of Riverside County, last year the air district imposed no-burn days for the entire district, from the ocean to the non-desert portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, including all of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

 

 

Since 20 percent or more of PM2.5 comes from wood-burning, so stopping it during winter inversions will help all Southern Californians breathe cleaner air, Fine said.

SCAQMD has called 13 no-burn days so far this winter, including four in a row from Jan. 18 to Jan. 21, on a pace to surpass last winter’s total of 16. The agency issued smoke advisories for western and southern San Bernardino County due to PM2.5 pollution from the Ontario mulch fire up until Wednesday, Fine said.

SCAQMD has had a basin-wide no-burn alert program since the winter of 2010-11 but it was intensified in the winter of 2013-14 when the threshold for calling an alert was lowered, said Sam Atwood, SCAQMD spokesperson.

 

 

The SCAQMD has not issued any violations for wood-burners this season, Atwood said in an email, adding to criticism that the program lacks enforcement.

Cacciotti said he spoke to Temple City Councilman Fernando Vizcarra who saw smoke rising from chimneys in town on a recent no-burn day and wanted something done. Cacciotti told him the best thing to do is call the public complaint line, 1-800-CUT-SMOG and report the violation.

 

DROUGHT, GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTS

 

Global warming, a possible cause for rising winter temperatures that made 2014 the warmest year in California history, aggravates winter smog conditions, according to a report from state air pollution control officers, “The 2014 Clean Air Progress Report.”

 

 

The drought has curtailed rain to almost zero in 2012 and 2013. No storms also means no air-cleansing winds. Instead, wood-burning smoke stayed trapped for extended periods, tripping smoke advisories and no-burn days, the latter are when local air districts prohibit fireplace fires and outdoor wood-burning in winter.

The winter smog season runs from Nov. 1 through Feb. 28. in Southern California. The Diamond Bar-based Southern California has seen days violating the annual federal standard cut in half since 2000, Fine said.

 

 

But pollutant levels rose in 2013 after falling for many years. “The drought, the lack of rainfall, is really affecting the trends of reduced emissions,” he said.

The sudden rise in winter smog hit central and Northern California even harder. In Sacramento, PM2.5 went from 2 days above the federal standard in 2012 to 15 days in 2013; the Bay Area jumped from 0 to 12 during that time period; the San Joaquin Valley more than doubled, going from 16 to 38 in the same time span, according to the smog officers’ report.

 

 

Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District issued 144 observed violations of no-burn days so far this winter, said Jamie Arno, spokesperson. Some of those may be waived if for instance, wood-burning is the only source of heat in the home.

 

BEHAVIORAL CHANGES

 

At Floyd S. Lee Fireplace & BBQ store in Pasadena, Tim Broderick sells ceramic fire logs. Fired up by natural gas flames, these heat up, turn colors but don’t burn and therefore, comply with the SCAQMD regulations.

Often, Broderick explains the rules to customers. “We are mainly selling gas logs,” he said.

 

 

Rett Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Gas Logs & Grills in Whittier, designs and manufactures glass and ceramic logs. He said many customers prefer the modern look of his logs to actual wood.

Often, his setups are used in Hollywood productions, such as “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

Lyou of the Coalition for Clean Air, said people with asthma or other respiratory diseases, children or the elderly should not be in a room with a wood-burning fire, even after it has been extinguished and leaves a layer of hazy blue smoke in the home.

 

 

“You are needlessly exposing yourself to particulate matter. That is not good for your health,” he explained.

All the attention given to PM2.5 in the last several years is a result of success controlling other pollutants from factories, refineries, paints/coatings and automobiles, he said, but still not meeting clean air standards.

“We’ve spent 50 years trying to control air emissions from every source, but this one has gone unregulated,” Lyou said.