 per pound of body weight than adults.)
Wood smoke from backyard fire pits can cause health problems such as burning eyes, runny nose and bronchitis. The fine particles also aggravate heart and lung diseases. Children are especially vulnerable as their respiratory systems are still developing and they breathe more air (and air pollution) per pound of body weight than adults.
Image: Saffanna, courtesy Flickr
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Dear EarthTalk: Backyard fire pits have become the latest must-have gardening feature. How bad are they on the environment?
-- Michael O’Laughlin, Tigard, OR
With Fall setting in and the mercury starting to drop, many of us want to extend our time outdoors, and sitting around a backyard fire pit has become one of the most popular means to do so. But even though it may be fun—s’mores anyone?—it is not good for the environment, especially during times when air quality is already poor.
It’s hard to assess the larger impact of backyard fire pits on local or regional air quality, but no one questions the fact that breathing in wood smoke can be irritating if not downright harmful. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so-called fine particles (also called particulate matter) are the most dangerous components of wood smoke from a health perspective, as they “can get into your eyes and respiratory system, where they can cause health problems such as burning eyes, runny nose and illnesses such as bronchitis.”
Fine particles also aggravate chronic heart and lung diseases, and have been linked to premature deaths in those already suffering from such afflictions. As such, the EPA advises that anyone with congestive heart failure, angina, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema or asthma should steer clear of wood smoke in general. Children’s exposure to wood smoke should also be limited, as their respiratory systems are still developing and they breathe more air (and air pollution) per pound of body weight than adults.
Geography and topography play a role in how harmful wood smoke can be on a community-wide level. People living in deep, steep-walled valleys where air tends to stagnate should be careful not to light backyard fires during smog alerts or other times when air quality is already poor. Lingering smoke can be an issue even in wide-open areas, especially in winter when temperature inversions limit the flow of air.
The Washington State Department of Ecology reports that about 10 percent of the wintertime air pollution statewide can be attributed to fine particles from wood smoke coming out of wood burning stoves. While a wood stove may be a necessary evil as a source of interior heat, there is no excuse for lighting up a backyard fire pit during times when you could be creating health issues for your neighbors.
Another potential risk to using a backyard fire pit is sparking a forest fire. Some communities that are surrounded by forestland voluntarily institute seasonal burn bans so that residents won’t inadvertently start a forest fire while they are out enjoying their backyard fire pits. If you live in one of these areas, you probably already know it and would be well advised to follow the rules.
If you must light that backyard fire pit, take some precautions to limit your friends’ and family’s exposure to wood smoke. The Maine Bureau of Air Quality recommends using only seasoned firewood and burning it in a way that promotes complete combustion—small, hot fires are better than large smoldering ones—to minimize the amount of harmful smoke. The moral of the story: If you need to burn, burn responsibly.
CONTACTS: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), www.epa.gov; Washington State Department of Ecology, www.ecy.wa.gov; Maine Bureau of Air Quality, www.maine.gov/dep/air/.
EarthTalk is produced by E/The Environmental Magazine. GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php
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17 Comments
Add CommentThis article is borderline rediculous. Particularily where noting that campfires "can cause health problems such as burning eyes, runny nose". Oh-my-goodness! Since when is a runny nose a health problem? What pathetically uneventful and sterile lives we would all lead if we believed this tripe. Tell you what, if the campfire is burning your eyes, pull your head out of the fire!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is borderline rediculous. Particularily where noting that campfires "can cause health problems such as burning eyes, runny nose". Oh-my-goodness! Since when is a runny nose a health problem? What pathetically uneventful and sterile lives we would all lead if we conformed to this tripe. Tell you what, if the campfire is burning your eyes, pull your head out of the fire!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis kind of practice should be praised! This is a very environmentally friendly way to heat your backyard. How you ask? Well isn't carbon neutrality the end all of the climate change debate? A backyard fire pit is burning recently grown trees that have sequestered carbon and is releasing it back into the atmosphere - carbon neutral.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact I have a good idea to make some extra cash. I will start a cap and trade system for my subdivision and will plant a trees in my yard and NOT burn that way I can sell my carbon credits to my neighbors! Then in 50 years when my backyard is a jungle I can clear cut it for farmland. Of course I will probably be cursed by all of my neighbors for damaging the environment.
Hello Slonjo,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would help your credibility if you had actually read the article. Why do I say this? Because in the very next paragraph we find, "Fine particles also aggravate chronic heart and lung diseases, and have been linked to premature deaths in those already suffering from such afflictions."
What does this have to do with backyard firepits. It is an article about the possible dangers of wood smoke. This includes indoor fires, campfires, your local gourmet pizza place. ignore the fact that we have been making wood fires since the dawn of time. Oh and last time I had a backyard fire, there was absolutely no risk of forest fire. Turns out my backyard is nowhere near a forest. Like most people's backyards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"ignore the fact that we have been making wood fires since the dawn of time."
While your ignoring, allow me to point out that their is a large difference between a group of hunters and gatherers cooking in a territory that they own alone for scores of square miles and an urban environment where hundreds of thousands people lite up the barbie and cook all at the same time. Remember the "dose makes the poison."
May I also point out that the average life span of hunters and gatherer is below forty years of age. That is not a life span I think we should be aiming for.
Pretty soon baking bread is going to be bad for the environment also. We've got to stop this cultish environmental madness. It's wrong to dump chemicals in our waterways and burn rain forests. I think we're borderlining on radical fanatical environmentalism when we even care about the backyard fire. Scientists have become the modern day priest creating sins and penance taxes. It's all based on belief. A scientist is no more an authority than a priest in many of these matters.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@fastwalkers
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find great irony in the fact that you critique science, all the while, you using a product of science and technology. You know the internet, computers, an understanding of the electromagnetic theory, etc. Hold on now! Is it that you are using a bible powered internet? Thought not.
Once a month or so, my upwind neighbor decides to build a bonfire in their backyard. Within minutes, the resulting smoke permeates my entire house, forcing me to close all my windows (despite the weather) and sometimes turn on the AC (wasting energy). The smoke causes my contacts to dry up and makes it difficult for me to breathe. I have asked him to stop, but alas, he loves his little 'smores more than my lungs. It also affects my son in the same way, often making it extremely hard to sleep that night. So, try stepping in my shoes for once, before sneering at the article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease stop the backyard fires. If I wanted to live in a campground I would. People don't burn seasoned wood, they burn their yard waste and their foam plates. They can't seem to keep it small, bigger is always better. They don't care about the hot ash flying out of their yard on to the roof of your house and garage. And, they don't care about the noise that they create around the fire experience. The neighbors on all sides burn. I'm so grateful for my air conditioner.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor your information and to educate those of you too stupid to figure it out for yourselves...backyard fires cause lung cancer! How do I know? My neighbors' backyard fires which caused particulate matter to enter my house which burned my nose, eyes and throat is responsible for the lung cancer I'm now fighting. I've been fighting with them and the township in which I live for over 5 years to outlaw these fires to no avail and now I have lung cancer which has matasticised. There is no history of cancer of any kind in my family...never ever...even back for generations! I'm attempting a lawsuit!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been fighting with my neighbors and the township in which I live over backyard fires for over 5 years. The particulate matter that seeps into my house burns my eyes, nose and throat and makes breathing difficult. There are so very many fires going, especially in the spring and fall, that smoke hangs like fog in my backyard. Then last fall I was diagnosed with lung cancer (already matasticized). (There has never been any kind of cancer in my family going back for many generations and my last chest x-ray before the bonfires started showed no disease...lung were perfect). I'm discussing the possibility of a lawsuit with legal aid so I can possibly pay my outrageous hospital bill. Quite sad for the way a senior citizen has to live out her years on this earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI live in the Village of Aviston , Illinois . Aviston has a population of approximately 1,300 and is located approximately 35 miles directly east of St. Louis . I have a neighbor that uses one of those NASTY Outdoor Wood Boilers (OWB). I have posted 19 videos of this OWB in action on YouTube.com: DirtyAviston This nasty thing will burn (SMOKE) 24x7 for six months straight...try living next to this nasty thing!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne fire operating an hour burning ten pounds of wood will generate 4,300 times more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than thirty cigarettes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBreathing smoke from 1 stick of wood is equivalent to smoking up to 16 cigarettes.
Washington State ranks fifth in the nation for the prevalence of asthma. One person dies every fourth day due to asthma-related causes.
Infants exposed to wood smoke have higher risk of Asthma Diagnosis by age 5. Most who have Asthma now had been exposed to wood smoke early in life.
Childhood asthma is 1 in every 10 children. Adult Asthma is increasing dramatically every year.
Lung cancer (even among non-cigarette smokers) is the hardest to treat, diagnose early, has the lowest/shortest survival rate among all cancers. Tobacco use has dropped, smoking is banned in public places, but Lung Cancer is the number one cause of cancer death. Wood smoke air pollution is one of the causes for the increase.
When smoke levels go up so do deaths, expensive prescription drug use, emergency room visits. We all pay higher medical costs and insurance premiums because of wood smoke.
80% of the air pollution in many areas isn't industry or traffic. It is wood smoke from residential and recreational wood burning.
Smoke stresses the immune system making it harder to prevent or recover from any disease; from a cold to Cancer.
Burning two cords of wood produces the same amount of mutagenic particles as: Driving 13 gasoline powered cars 10,000 miles each at 20 miles/gallon or driving 2 diesel powered cars 10,000 miles each @ 30 miles/gallon. These figures indicate the worst contribution that an individual makes to the mutagenicity of the air is using a wood stove for heating.
Free radicals from wood smoke are chemically active for twenty minutes; tobacco smoke radicals are chemically active for thirty seconds. Wood smoke attacks our body’s cells up to forty times longer then tobacco smoke.
Wood smoke particles are tiny they seep into houses through closed doors, windows, light fixtures, under baseboards, wall plugs, any small crack. Furnace and exhaust fans pull smoke into homes. Furnace filters, weather-stripping, insulation doesn’t stop smoke. A recent study shows that wood smoke pollution indoors can reach up to 70 percent of the outside pollution level in homes which do not burn wood. Neighbors of wood burners breathe smoky air. Schools, hospitals, no public place can keep out wood smoke.
Wood smoke chemicals and particulates can stay near the ground for up to three weeks and can travel up to 700 miles from the source. It can be in the air harming health even when the smell isn’t easily discernable.
Tens of thousands are harmed and die yearly from breathing wood smoke. See BurningIssues org, for scientific medical research about the serious health consequences of breathing carbon soot, particulates and toxic chemicals in wood smoke.
It is sad that anyone of any age has to live with Greed and Selfishness. Every woodburner I know has a very hateful, retaliatory attitude toward anyone and everyone. Everyone who burns a woodstove in my state has plenty of money to spend on everything you can possibly imagine. But get mad as hell at the mention that they might stop burning and pay for non-wood heat. They also have frequent outdoor fires which has nothing to do with saving money. Those of you who have neighbors like this write or email Lisa Jackson at the EPA in Washington DC. Send a letter or eamil every day telling her how bad the air qaulity is in your state, city, county, town and at your friends and familieslocations. Tell her how smoky the school, daycare, retirement home, beauty shop, theater, library, any public place and all shopping locations are every time you visit them. When thousands of emails/letters keep coming daily the goverment will make burning illegal in this country. A $1000.00 a day fine will ensure compliance!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour air conditioner, furnace, heat pump etc. is useless to keep out wood smoke and make your air safe. Weatherstripping, sealing plastic over windows does nothing to keep it out. It enters through crawl spaces, attics, all of the above devices, exhaust fan vents, through weatherstripped door and window cracks, the dryer vent etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRunning exhaust fans and heat/cooling systems draws even more smoke into the home. There is not a furnace or air cleaner filter that keeps it out no matter what advertising claims.
Hospitals with the most sophisticated systems money can buy are filled with wood smoke!
The only solution is to daily lobby all Federal, State and localgovernemtns to outlaw indoor and outdoor wood burning.
The law needs to include yard debris fires as well. The smoke from wet soggy yard debris is extremeley unhealthy to breathe!
Be sure and include your do nothing to help you local politicians in your law suit. I have informed mine that they eithier outlaw all wood burning or everyone who is focred to breathe smoke inside thier homes against their desire to do so will be sueing THEM for damages. Because they have the responsilbility to protect health and safety!
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