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Topic: Outdoor Fireplaces



Date Posted: Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Posted by: Tanya Zanfa (Master Admin)
Source: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5541434-physician-seeks-control...


Physician seeks controls on home fireplaces


Physician seeks controls on home fireplaces

Two people, some good wine, a bearskin rug and a roaring fire.

A romantic dream scene for some could be a health nightmare for neighbours breathing the smoke from that fire — the kind of nightmare a local doctor says the city should legislate against.

Ted Mitchell, a general practitioner, is working with Environment Hamilton to press city council for a bylaw restricting the burning of wood inside homes.

"For one person to enjoy the ambience and warm fuzzy things of a wood fire means dozens of their neighbours have to suffer," he said. "Getting something pleasant out of that causes a lot of pollution."

Mitchell said medical studies, many coming from Asia and Africa where wood fires are often the primary source of heat and cooking, have shown smoke from a damp log passed up a dirty chimney contains the same cancer-causing agents and other bad things found in tobacco smoke.

"The pollution from these things is really quite bad," he added. "The bad effects of tobacco and wood smoke are pretty comparable, you have roughly the same chance of getting lung cancer or other infections for each."

Mitchell has two targets in his effort — those small, outdoor fire pots on backyard patios, and indoor wood stoves and fireplaces.

Under Hamilton's burning bylaw, outdoor fireplaces are already technically banned — unless they're used for cooking. He wants that loophole closed and new legislation mandating newer, more efficient stoves and fireplaces inside or the conversion of existing fireplaces to gas or electricity.

A bylaw, he said, is needed because the provincial or federal governments won't act on the issue, leaving the courts as the only solution for people who feel they're being harmed by their neighbour's constant fireplace use.

"The courts are blunt, expensive and inefficient," he said. "This is just too much of a political hot potato for the provincial or federal governments."

Similar bylaws have been enacted in "several dozen" municipalities in British Columbia and one is expected to go into force in Montreal later this year.

Mitchell and Environment Hamilton executive director Lynda Lukasik will present their case to the city's board of health later this month.

The federal health department has published information about wood smoke pollution, warning it contains particulate matter that travels deep into your lungs causing breathing and heart problems; high levels of carbon dioxide, carcinogenic volatile organic compounds and small quantities of other toxic compounds including nitrogen oxide and chlorinated dioxins that contribute to problems such as smog and acid rain.

The government website warns wood smoke can cause eye, nose and throat irritations, headaches, nausea and dizziness. It can aggravate asthma and other breathing problems.

People with heart or lung problems and children are considered especially vulnerable.

 

sarnold@thespec.com

905-526-3496 | @arnoldatTheSpec



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