MaryRozenberg
"At thirty-nine ..I learned how to stack wood... I became obsessed with firewood. If only there was always a fire in the fireplace, I knew that everything would be all right.", Erica Jong in " Fear of Fifty"
When I set out to make measurements of tiny air borne particles smaller than 2.5 microns, using a nephelometer manufactured by Radiance research, I measured everything I could find that made dust, smoke, or soot. I measured a wood working shop, art classes using charcoal, grinding rock, grinding debris from trees, cooking over gas grills, gas stoves, cars, diesel buses and trucks, woodburning fireplaces and woodstoves, restaurants using wood or wood briquettes, dust from vacuuming, dust from the clothes dryer and cigarette smoking. What I found was that emissions from a clean and efficient fuel like gas had no detectable emission of PM2.5. Burning anything that was solid immediately gives very high readings. The particles that we are measuring are so small that 30 would fit on a red blood cell. So when something solid disappears into the air it's still there, in this deadly form. " Matter is neither created or destroyed - it just changes form." ;
Particles smaller than 10 microns (PM10),(combustion byproducts-soot)are associated with more than asthma, cancer, and lung disease.New research links ingestion of PM10 to sudden elderly heart attack, hypertensive heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and altered immune defense mechanisms. The last compromises resistance to bacterial infections and cell proliferation. Repeated exposures permanently change the structural integrity of the cells of nasal and respiratory passages inhibiting the flow of mucous. Loss of olfactory senses due to cell death, gastric reflux, and chronic ear infections in young children are documented. The ear infections due to compromised immune response, can lead to consequent hearing loss are documented. PM10 and combustion byproducts (smoke) are linked to feto toxicity associated with leading to miscarriage and birth defects. Many children who die of SIDS lack receptors that monitor gas ratios with every heart beat in the brain, or the reception is inhibited by a toxin from cigarette smoke or woodsmoke. The researchers point to exposure of toxic smoke in the 1st trimester of pregnancy which change DNA or RNA messages before the proper development has taken place. Infants receive a double dose of toxins when they are nursing , they get the chemicals that the mother has ingested also. All children exposed to woodsmoke loose lung function over the period of exposure even though the year growing and should be showing a larger capacity. A child receives more toxic dose per pound than an adult with the same exposure and the child also breaths more rapidly.
Chronic inflammatory disease such as lupus, arthritis, vasculitis, and Behcet's disease have increased susceptibility to oxidative death of DNA. Indeed research at the Inflammation Research Group, London Hospital Medical College lead by Dr. Paul G. Winyard hypothesize that somatic mutation as a basis for autoimmune disease is an extension of this clonal selection theory of antibody formation. Could exposure to combustion byproducts cause autoimmune disease? Woodsmoke is the 3rd largest contributor to the production of dioxins in the US. Deadly and recycled over and over again in the environment they are reported to contaminate virtually our entire food supply.
At the Colloquium on Particulate Air Pollution and Human Mortality and Morbidity, January 24-25, 1994, where I presented my collected measurements in a poster session, there was a general consensus that for every increase in PM10 levels of 50 micrograms per cubic meter there was overall increased mortality of 6%, a respiratory emergency room increase of 18% and there appeared to be no safe threshold. This research was presented and published by Joel Schwartz, with the conclusion that 60,000 Americans die prematurely every year from inhalation of soot.
There was consensus that once ingested, these particles cannot get back out. They are digested or encapsulated in the body. In fibrocystic lung disease the scarred lung can weigh three times that of the normal lung. Dr. Victor Roggli describes a biopsy specimen of a woman heating with a defective woodstove, " more than two million black fibers per gram of lung tissue. The black fibers included lathe like and grid like structures and bizarre forms. There were no asbestos fibers identified. It was wood" A further picture in his full report shows a picture of a dagger-like piece of wood fiber that was iron coated. (Burning Issues has more than ten papers showing that even the newest woodstoves pollute the indoor air with PM10, PAH, and CO, and of course we have ten more papers that show that what is emitted outside the home comes right back inside.) A 1993 Mexican study of women with no other exposure to pollution except for cooking over wood describes "the pulmonary arterial hypertension appears to be more severe than in other forms of interstitial lung disease and tobacco related disease." Soot is the same size as asbestos, it was concluded that the particles could act as sponges conducting bacteria and other toxins and gases from the environment directly into the blood stream within the nose and lung. There was consensus that due to cell death and scarring each time the body gets bronchitis, pneumonia, and sinus infections the damage is progressive so that each infection is worse than the last. Smoke kills cells, the dead cells release toxins that must be removed from the body, stressing the major body organs. One theory is that this could lead to sudden death - a toxic shock syndrome.
It was also concluded that the particles are so fine that they cannot settle out and can remain airborne for an average of three weeks and spread for 700 miles. United States residential neighborhoods show higher concentrations of PM10 in the winter in the evenings than downtown urban areas and industrial areas during the day. This is due to woodsmoke. There is no escaping PM10, indoor levels of PM10 on the average are 70% of outdoor levels. My research with fifteen minute averaging, 24 hours a day, shows that very high population exposures to this deadly pollution occur while people are in their own homes, in their own beds, the woodsmoke pollution peaking at midnight. Research by Dr. Wayne Ott, of the US EPA, and Drs. Larson and Koineg of U of Washington, shows that the indoor levels inside the house do not clear out these toxins until 6 A.M. To confound the problem evening temperature radiation inversions hold the toxic smoke close to the ground with little dispersion during these hours.
It has been acknowledged that secondary cigarette smoke is more carcinogenic than direct inhalation from the cigarette, similarly downwind neighbors of wood burners breathing the stack fumes that are rich in organics and creosote are subjected to more carcinogens and gases than the burner. Woodstoves, because of the way they burn, create more carcinogens (PAH) than a fireplace. We recorded no traceable ambient levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH), in our residential testing neighborhoods, in the summer when there was no wood heating, and in the winter the PAH levels were closely correlated with the rise and fall of the particulate levels that we measured. Biochemist William Pryor of University of Louisiana published research in 1992 showing that the free radicals from woodsmoke are chemically active in the body 40 times longer than those from tobacco smoke. It has also been noted that cigarette smokers and wood burners have equally high levels of carbon monoxide(CO) in their blood. CO restricts blood vessels thereby restricting the flow of oxygen to the muscles, thus the burner feels cold, and burns more. Carbon dioxide vented from woodstoves can cause fatigue, chest pain, irregular heart beats, dizziness, weakness, nausea and disorientation. With many of the same toxins and gases which anesthetize brain receptors found in cigarettes and woodburning it is plausible that woodburning could be an equally addictive behavior as smoking cigarettes. Only one out of six U.S. households ever burn wood at all. Some former smokers are heavy wood burners. This same small subset of people support the idea of burning for fun, bonfires on the beach, bonfires for camping, fires to cleanup yard debris, and solid fuel barbecues as fund raisers. (Case in point: local fire departments, who educate children about the dangers of smoke, give barbecues as fund raisers - a great time is had by all, as the children run around playing in the smoke.) While the official policy of the Boy and Girl Scouts of America to teach children LOW IMPACT Camping with only propane being used for cooking and no solid fuel combustion, the reality at the local levels is that parents who love to burn, ignore these dictates and help the kids to learn to burn for fun and even sell wood door to door as a fund raiser for the troop, (Los Altos CA 1994). What these "burn for fun" advocates do not realize is that respiratory illness is the leading cause of US school absence and that only one hour of exposure to smoke increases risk of serious infection 25%.
In the San Francisco Bay Area there are 700,000 woodburners with a population of six million people. In 1995 an economic report was written under the direction of David Fairley, and Jane Hall of the Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies. It is estimated that the loss to the Bay Area from PM2.5 in lost workdays, illness, and death is $2.1 Billion. It recommends that the woodburning be stopped as there would be no economic loss by this life saving restriction on an urban activity. The Pollution attributed to this small subset of burners costs everyone close to $1 billion. These burners are parasites; each pound of wood that they burn costs the community $2.00 in increased medical costs and lost work days. That is equivalent to $40 for an average fire burning 20 pounds of wood.(By comparison the value of our cleanup with cars is attributed with health savings of $604 million.) The Bay Area Air Quality Management District Officials have added fuel to the fire by promoted the sale of "new" woodstoves as a solution with every phone message, with misleading and false reporting to the press, by changing an official and copyrighted CA State ARB Book that read "#1 Stop Burning Wood" to "#1 Don't Burn when Air Quality is Poor. Be a good neighbor and burn correctly,"they say.
Our studies show elevated carbon monoxide and PM2.5 and PAH even from houses without large visible plumes. Our research showed that purchases of a new woodstoves were instead of a clean gas system that could have been installed at a comparable price. These stoves will never wear out, that is why the manufacturers love legislation that decrees that you go to the newest model. With a fuel that is 1000 times dirtier than gas this game can go on for ever. The emissions from a new woodstove equal 400 house heating with gas when it is new, however the stoves rapidly deteriorate. With the additional marketing pressure support that they get from the Building Industry and the Real Estate Industry, and the failing physical and financial condition of the victim and his family, and bizarre assaults such as the woodstove caravan they lighted in the middle of the air district parking lot as part of a meeting on health effects of wood smoke, they are sure that they can wear down and intimidate even the most informed citizen or scientist. They states they are not responsible for public health, the Health department states they are busy with AIDS and will NOT touch the subject, the CA EPA says the Governor Pete Wilson does not want to hear this.
We talked with hundreds of bay area woodstove victims ands we have no evidence that the air district ever followed it's Health and Safety Code mandate to protect public health or ever responded to help even one victim over the 9 years of this growing crisis.Many of us have been forced to flee our homes. We quickly discovered that there was no place to go! You could drive for 2 1/2 hours in any direction before you could get out of the smoke. When 500,000 burners light 20 pounds of fuel each, it is like a bomb has gone off. For anyone already in physical distress that is a death sentence.
One of our first members of Burning Issues was Rosemary Fox, she was retired and too old and sick to move when her neighbor, a former Berkeley Cop, installed a woodstove with a stack that vented directly into her house at window level from 20 feet away. Rosemary died of hypertensive heart disease five years later. The district never came to her aid. Who killed Rosemary Fox? Was it the Cop who wouldn't stop burning, was it the employees of the air district who assured him the right to burn, was it the County Supervisors and Town Mayors of the Board of the District who turned their heads and hearts away from her plight? Was it the fault of the State Air Resources Board who refused to help. Was it the fault of the congressional Representatives who answered her letters with their circular replies. They sent her back to the Air district! All of these representatives of the people act as if their neighborhoods and shopping areas don't reek of this toxic and acrid smoke for months on end. Was it the EPA research team that worked with the steel industry to build more and more of these household incinerators that killed Rosemary, when they covered up the trail of research that documented their failure to make a pig fly? When industry turned even their research into fantastic and false reports that the stoves were "clean burning and non polluting" they remained silent and hid under report after report after report all done in Crested Butte a resort ski area in the winter. Are the over 300 stove manufacturers responsible for her death - they have successfully lobbied to keep any health information warnings off their incinerators, and have successfully lobbied and falsified medical information printed by the CA Air Resources Board, The BAAQMD, The US EPA, and the American Lung Association. Are witnesses of family, neighbors and friends the ones who pulled the trigger when as they stated after Rosemary's death, "this was her battle" while they did not lift a finger. Where are the warnings from American Medical Association Doctors who live with us in our neighborhoods yet act as if they don't smell smoke and can't yell FIRE! Did Gov. Wilson pull the trigger or was it President Nixon who burned in the White House even when they had to run the air conditioning, (Pat Nixon died of lung cancer). Was it Roosevelt with his fireside talks? Or Jimmy Carter an otherwise brilliant man who advocated this as a way to save on oil during the embargo without a clue to subsequent devastating consequences in urban areas. It doesn't help when he chats on TV that no matter how busy they are the family meets back at their compound on Saturday nights for a family chat and brainstorming session, in front of the fire! When you look at Carter's face notice the crinkled lines and folds and extra skin about the eyes that look just like a cigarette smoker. (Many burners develop smokers skin after a few years of heating with wood.)
If we can't credit our presidents with any common sense we can credit President Lincoln's father as being a man of insight and action. Remember the story of the little log cabin Lincoln grew up in? Well there was more than one. When someone built up wind of his cottage he moved to a clean air spot and built another house. In those days without antibiotics he knew that it was bad enough to have only wood for fuel, but that it was a double whammy for health to breath someone else's exhaust as well.
Every camp ground in America is thick with woodsmoke. 50% of the reduction in visibility in the Grand Canyon is woodsmoke.
Government pressure to cut back volume in our land fills encourages many burners to incinerate packaging and other materials, including discarded building materials soaked with chemicals, and yard debris leading to even more toxic particulate emissions, right in our neighborhoods, close to ground level. The burners feel good because they have made the mess disappear. They credit themselves with saving the entire world from war by not burning oil and cover the fact of the cumulative deforestation taking place here in the United States with noise about wood being renewable .
Ironically just as cigarette smoking is being phased out of public places, restaurants cooking with burning wood and often run by national chains, are springing up all over the country, in shopping malls and dense urban neighborhoods like Forest Hills Queens, NY, Longmeadow, MA, Palo Alto, CA., and Point Arena, CA. Air Regulatory agencies overlook their pollution as they burn up to one thousand pounds of wood a week. They are a nonstop assault on the people who live in and work in these areas. My measurements inside a non-smoking restaurant using gas for cooking fuel showed no detectable PM10 or CO. My measurements of PM10 and CO inside a restaurant using wood equaled pollution levels similar to a restaurant with cigarette smoking.
Stegner in writing about his father: "He wanted to make a killing and end up on easy street. ... He did one last desperate and damaging thing: he managed to get an option on some land in southern California, and to make his payments and a fastbuck, he hired a crew to cut down all its two-hundred-year-old oaks and sell them off as firewood. Finally, like Clarence King and many another gambler no worse and no better, he died broke and friendless in a fleabag hotel, having in his lifetime done more human and environmental damage than he could have repaired in a second lifetime." Wallace Stegner "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, Living and Writing in the West"
Expect lung pathology from woodsmoke.
Children's Health and Solid Fuel Combustion
Respiratory illness is the leading cause of school absenteeism in the United States, and is the leading cause of childhood death in the third world.
Correspondence to Dr. K SK Martin, 5 Fifth Street, Marondera, Zimbabwe
M.R. Pandey, J.S.M. Boleij, K.R. Smith, E.M. Wafula, "IndoorAir Pollution in Developing Countries and Acute Respiratory Infection in Children", Lancet, 2/25/89, 427-429, 2/89
Karen Morris, Marcia Morganlander, et al., "Wood-BurningStoves and Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in American Indian Children", American Journal of Disease Control, 144:105-108(1990), 1/90
We also have another version of this report, presented at the Air and Waste Management Association Meeting (June 1991), with a minor change in title.
Appendix
Pyromania - Mental disorder #312.33 impulse control disorder (as listed in the diagnostic and statistic manual :P. 325 : deliberate and purposeful pleasure arousal and gratification relief on starting fire. Not for financial gain or to express anger. Can be indifferent to the consequence or derive pleasure from the results. Theres a male predominance in the disorder.
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