Woodstove Air Pollution: Myth or Reallity?

The San Joaquin Valley of California has some of the worst air quality in the US due mainly to its topography and weather patterns. In the winter, PM 10 and 2.5, VOCs, and NOx from wood burning stoves has been determined to be a significant pollution source. Go to : www.valleyair.org and enter "woodstoves" in the search box and you'll find many references to the rules and regulations dealing with woodstoves. Also, look at the State Implementation Plans for PM10, 2.5, and ozone for emission inventory data.

Ron Harben
Air Quality Coordinator
California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
United States

It is very difficult to answer this question, as there is a case to be made both for and against woodstoves in terms of their impact on the environment and human health. The case for woodstoves is supported by the reduced reliance on fossil fuels and the ability for many areas to be more energy independent through local forestry and other biomass resources. New technology stoves and wood gasification technologies can also produce significantly lower emissions than older stoves and boilers.

The case against woodstoves and wood burning in general is easy to see in any valley or other area that experiences temperature inversions. Improper burning practices and old technology stoves can have a significant impact on human health due to the localized impacts from particulate matter. To deal with this issue, we work on educating wood stove users on proper burning techniques, requiring all new stoves to meet EPA standards, prohibiting the installation of old technology stoves and providing incentives to replace old technologies with newer wood, gas or eclectic stoves.


Kate Bergen
Regional Air Quality Coordinator
Canada

While looking at the woodstove industry worlwide I found great differences in the way resellers of woodstoves communicate. The best I have seen is in Australia where they seem to truly inform customers of the impact of woodstoves to the environment. In France on the other hand, communication is such that it seems that you are actually helping the environment if you burn wood. It seems to me that things are complex and that the message should be that there is no energy that is enterely clean and that end users can reduce pollution considerably with teh way they operate their stoves. In a way, it would be nice to convince woodstove manufacturer that they need to properly inform their customers on how to burn wood. Are there any study out there that show wood consumption differences between people ?

Frederic Besnard
International Business Developper
Condar
United States
www.woodstovethermometers.com

You may want to contact the Alliance for Green Heat: http://www.forgreenheat.org/
I notice two surveys of woodstove users on their "Resources" page.

Jennifer Amann
Director, Buildings Program
ACEEE
United States

The idea of using wood for fuel should no longer be considered sensible, even when modern improvements in wood stove technology have reduced the amount of air pollution. Our forests are rapidly being depleted, and as a result many species of animals, birds and vegetation are going extinct, erosion of hillsides caries away top soil, blocks rivers with gravel, causes floods and destroys salmon fisheries. In many parts of the world centuries ago, heavily forested areas became deserts. Desertification is spreading. That happened because of use of wood for cooking, heating and construction. Most of the Douglas firs of British Columbia are gone and so are the fabulous Cedars of Lebanon. Resistance to development of alternate fuels is based on denial of facts. Where reforestation took place and hillside land was terraced to prevent erosion, humidity increased and birds and animals returned, gardens and orchards thrived again and families had food again. I have this perspective from living many years in the far east and in Africa. Geothermal, solar, wind and wave technology have already been demonstrated as being feasible and not expensive. They also are non-polluting of the air. It is denial to cling to the burning of wood. Don't use the excuse that you are using scrap branches. They can be used for more constructive purposes.

Myrtle Macdonald
Consultant
retired
Canada