Wood Smoke: UPDATE
Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) has worked trying to protect people from wood smoke exposures for the past 15 years. Before all the serious wildfires and their wood smokeexposures that have affected so many people’s health – woodsmoke exposures were extremely dangerous, but did not affect large portions of the population. Because of this, the people who lived near people who burned wood were extremely harmed by the wood smoke, but because whole populations were not affected, EHHI had trouble getting this issue heard and regulated. Wood smoke is dangerous whether it is from wildfire exposures or smoke from neighbor’s wood burning. Outdoor woodfurnaces (OWFs) remain extremely dangerous as they burn 24 hours a day and the smoke enter neighbors’ houses, even when their windows and doors are closed. The smoke stays close to the ground and travels for over ½ a mile. Some people burn these appliances even in the summer months, as they heat their hot water with them. How much progress has EHHI made in regulating dangerous wood burning in order to protect people’s health? EHHI sued the U.S. EPA, along with a few other nonprofits, in order to get better emission standards for indoor wood stoves and for OWFs. We won our case – but OWFS remain very dangerous to neighbors. Although local health departments are empowered to shut down offending wood smoke appliances – because OWFs supply heat – as far as we have followed this issue, local health departments have never shut one of them down, no matter how harmed they cause a neighbor’s health.
If you burn wood recreationally, in fire pits, chimineas, etc. and the wood burning smoke affects a neighbor - we have seen some health departments in CT shut that wood burning down.
If a person tries to sue a neighbor for harming them with their wood burning, the offending neighbor’s home-owners insurance will pay for his defense lawyer – while the person who is harmed, will pay full price for their lawyer hired to sue the neighbor.