Smoke Particle Size

Cooper: 1980 Environmental Impact of Residential Wood Combustion Emissions and its Implications

What is in Wood Smoke?

Constituents of Wood Smoke from an EPA Study.

Dioxin:"Burning 1 kilogram of wood produced as much as 160 micrograms of total dioxins. This result was obtained when various specimens of wood were burned in different stoves. Soot was collected and analyzed by well-designed and documented procedures. Tetrachlorinated, hexachlorinated, heptachlorinated, octachlorinated dioxins were present. The isomers of the dioxins were separated and quantified. The highly chlorinated dioxins were the major components. In the soot from a series of experiments, their total content ranged from 10 to 167 mg/kg of fuel. The total yields of tetrachlorinated dioxins (TCDDs) ranged from 0.1 to 7.8 mg/kg of fuel."
[Science, Vol. 266 Oct. 21, 1994,T.J. Nestrick and L.L. Lamparski, Anal. Chem. 54, 2292 (1982)].

Dioxin Handout a 1 page handout.

Biomass Burning and Cyanide Releases

Mold and Fungus

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) Comparisons Coal and Wood

Radwaste from Fireplaces in United States "With the exception of some very low California readings, all measurements of wood ash with fallout-cesium exceeded - some by 100 times or more - the levels of radioactive cesium that may be released from nuclear plants (about 100 picocuries per kilogram of sludge). Wood ash-cesium levels were especially high in the Northeast" [Science News, 1991]

Burning Issues Tri-fold Brochure

Burning Issues Tri-fold Brochure on Wood Burning: References

A REAL-LIFE SOOT/SLUDGE SAMPLE FROM UPSTATE NY

Persistent Organic Pollutants in Germany

Outdoor Wood Boilers pose a burden of smoke pollution year round as they are used to heat water in addition to residential heat.

EPA in a 2000 report revisits the 1992 wood stoves (phase II) study

• Comparisons of Emissions from different sources of PM-2.5 or smaller.
• Biomass Burning Luke Curtis, MS, CIH- from Human Ecologist- Fall Issue 2002