Wood stove roundup: helping to clear wintertime smoke

Volunteers help to unload wood stoves brought in for recycling

It may be hot outside, but that didn't deter folks in Okanogan County from taking advantage of a cashback incentive to recycle old, smoky wood stoves earlier this month. At $250 per stove, limited to two stoves per customer, each person could claim up to $500!

Reducing wintertime air pollution is a priority in the county, where poor ventilation traps wood smoke in mountain valleys, often for days on end.

Our Air Quality Program in Central Washington teamed with Okanogan County, the Methow Valley Clean Air Project and the Okanogan River Airshed Partnership, to sponsor the collection event at the Twisp Transfer Station and the county's Central Landfill, June 5-6.

The results: A total of 74 participants turned in 105 stoves, leading to a payout of $26,250! Translating to a potential reduction of over 2 tons of PM 2.5 emissions, the small particles in smoke that when inhaled lodge in our lungs and can cause respiratory damage.

Participants will receive payment by check in a few weeks, and also got some cool outreach goodies at the events. Additionally, all the stoves turned in will be recycled! Funding was made available through the Woodsmoke Reduction Grant Program to improve air quality in our state's most vulnerable regions.

Stoves of all shapes and sizes

Recent data shows Okanogan County residents are exposed to more smoke, due to wildfires and wood stoves, than people in any other county in the state. While we can't do much about wildfire smoke, it makes sense to reduce other sources of smoke and provide an incentive for cleaner burning alternatives, such as new stoves or switching to gas or electric heat.

Waiting for the crusher and to be recycled

Although this round of buybacks is over, everyone can make a difference. If you own a wood stove, burn only dry, seasoned wood, and consider replacing your older stove with a newer, more efficient model. 

Homeowners can help reduce smoke emissions by composting and chipping instead of burning yard waste (which is illegal in urban growth areas throughout the state).

Please check out our community partner’s pages. They helped by volunteering at this buyback, and are also working with us to sponsor future events and other programs. Use the links below to learn more about their mission and ways you can help keep the air clean!

Also, local clean air agencies may sponsor similar events.

Methow Valley Clean Air Project Facebook

Okanogan River Airshed Partnership (website under development)

Omak Community Clean-up 
Partnership Promoting Clean Air

More wood stove information

Data by county on emissions

Kimi Matsushima checks in a stove to be recycled - from the trunk of  a car!

By Kimi Matsushima, Air Quality Specialist

Tis the season for smoky air

Clear the air by following these tips, and there will be fewer burn bans

The weather is getting colder, which sets up ideal conditions for temperature inversions that trap air pollution close to the ground.

The source of this pollution? Smoke from woodstoves and emissions from highway traffic.

How can you make a difference? Follow a few tips to prevent pollution in the first place and obey burn bans when they are called.

In the summer, burning may be banned for fire protection, due to tinder dry conditions and the threat of wildfire. In the winter, smoke can stack up in our valleys for long periods of time, causing unhealthy air for us to breathe. The goal is to stay within state and federal ambient air quality requirements designed to protect people’s health.

By following these top practices year-round the air will clear and fewer burn bans will be called:

• Make sure your fuel is well seasoned, low in moisture and stored undercover to keep dry
• Never burn green, wet wood. Doing so is inefficient and creates smoke
• Check your chimney 20 minutes after you start a fire. You should see only clear vapor heat waves and very LITTLE smoke.
• Remember, breathing smoke is harmful, especially for the young, elderly and those with respiratory ailments. So protect yourself and your neighbors.
• Check www.waburnbans.net before lighting a fire in the home, shop, business or outdoors.

Burn bans are called in stages by local, state and federal agencies, depending on the jurisdiction.

During a Stage 1 burn ban -- NO use of uncertified wood stoves or fireplaces indoors and NO, outdoor burning, agricultural, and forest burning.

During a Stage 2 burn ban -- NO burning indoors or outdoors, unless wood is your sole home-heating source.

Consider upgrading. Check for incentive programs where you live. If you choose to burn, create small fires with lots of air… no damping down. We’ll all breathe easier.

Learn more and watch demonstration videos on this page:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/outdoor_woodsmoke/Burn_Ban.htm

Air Time: Washington ranks high for wood stove pollution

By Camille St. Onge, communications manager, Air Quality/Climate Change 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently ranked Washington state as ninth worst in the nation for wood stove pollution. 

For the past 20 years, Washington has had the toughest air quality standards in the nation for wood stoves, furnaces and heaters. Despite that, we still rank in the top 10 of most-polluting states. 

Washington’s geography and winter weather affect pollution levels 

Mountainous terrain, valleys and cold air are a perfect recipe for high levels of

harmful particulate pollution in the winter. 
Normally, the air closest to the ground is warmer than the air up high. This allows air pollution like smoke, vehicle exhaust and dust to rise and disperse and pollution doesn’t reach high levels in the air we breathe. 

In winter, however, sometimes these conditions are reversed—cold air below and warmer air up high. This is called an inversion. During an inversion, air pollution and smoke (particlulate pollution) become stagnant and don’t move up the air column. The polluted air is trapped close to the ground, in the air we breathe. 

Wood smoke is tiny particles of ash and tar. The particles are smaller than 1 micrometer in diameter and are light enough to be carried by air currents. Single smoke particles are too small to be visible, but when there are enough, they form a cloudy haze.  We inhale these fine particles deep into our respiratory system and they lodge in our lungs. This is unhealthy for everyone, but is especially harmful to infants, young children, the elderly, and people with asthma, heart or lung disease.

Inversions happen all over the state. Examples of areas more susceptible are Leavenworth and Colville, which are in narrow valleys. Other areas are less obvious, like bowl-shaped areas such as Spokane. 

Why wood-smoke pollution matters  

Simply put, your health is why it matters. There is no level of exposure to

particulate pollution from wood smoke that is considered safe. 
Hundreds of studies show that air pollution causes serious harm, even at levels below federal safety standards.

Particulate pollution causes significant health issues each year in Washington, including: 

• 1,100 premature deaths are attributed to particulate pollution - more than twice the number of deaths from automobile accidents
• 1,500 heart attacks
• 2,000 cases of acute lung disease and bronchitis

The harm to human health from this air pollutant equates to $200 million in preventable costs each year.

Keep in mind that particulate pollution is just one of the six pollutants regulated by federal air quality standards. There are hundreds of other chemicals emitted into our air that can harm health or our environment, including toxic chemicals such as mercury and benzene.

Population growth and more wood stoves

The population of our state has more than doubled since 1970. Along with the

population increase has come higher numbers of homes heated with wood, and cleaner burning devices are needed.  

EPA’s new wood stove standards go into effect in May 2015 and there will be more stringent standards in 2020. These standards reduce the maximum amount of fine particulate pollution allowed for new stoves. 

Washington’s Clean Air Act standards already meet EPA’s new 2015 standard, but not the lower 2020 levels. Moving to the 2020 standards will help improve pollution levels in Washington, giving us all healthier air to breathe. 

Air monitoring and forecasting

Ecology works with forecasters at nine partner air authority agencies in Washington to monitor weather patterns and assess air quality.

Forecasters watch weather and air quality models closely to identify areas with weather and pollution patterns that will cause air quality to reach unacceptable levels.

Air monitors placed throughout the state provide valuable data about air pollution. Through air monitoring and weather modeling, forecasters are able to identify communities that will experience air pollution problems during inversions, wildfires or other times. If a community has an air pollution problem, a burn ban may be put in place to help keep air pollution at acceptable levels.

Outreach and education

In addition to monitoring and forecasting, another important component to managing air pollution is outreach and education. Ecology coordinates with local air agencies to implement wood smoke reduction programs.

In 2013-15, Ecology awarded $4 million in grant money to seven communities that are vulnerable to violating national air pollution standards for fine particles. These grants focus on replacing old stoves in low-income households that burn a lot of wood for heat or other purposes.

Despite the success of grants and recycling programs, Ecology estimates that there are more than 200,000 old, high-polluting stoves still in use in the state.

Air Time: Tis the Season – for hazy skies, wood smoke, burn bans, tips on burning clean

By Joye Redfield-Wilder, communication manager, Central Regional Office

Tis the Season — the season for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) or just as easily “SAQD (Seasonal Air Quality Disorder).” When temperatures drop, smoke will increase in many Washington communities as we begin nesting and fire up wood-burning devices to heat our homes.

When smoke combines with diesel emissions and other tiny pollution particles, air quality can quickly degrade. That sometimes results in bans on burning. Wood smoke is one of the most serious air pollution problems in Washington.

Communities in both Eastern and Western Washington suffer poor air quality during the home heating season and can be at risk of failing to meet state and federal air quality standards to protect human health. But there’s something people can do to help.

That’s burning clean or choosing another way to heat your home.

Burning wood can be a cheap way to heat your home if done correctly.

Here’s a video on how to operate your woodstove more efficiently.

More on that and burn bans is available on Ecology’s Air Quality web site.

See the Ecology News Release: Hazy skies call for clean burning to help avoid burn bans

---

AirTime: Wood-fired hydronic heaters

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

The best solutions to problems create wins all around. A republican president stated in his State of the Union address in 1970, “We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor’s yard.” In a similar vein, my mantra is “Solving a home heating problem by creating an air pollution problem is not a win-win”.

There are devices called wood-fired hydronic heaters or outdoor wood boilers that have caused havoc throughout the NE and Mid-West U.S. Many of these units and their operators are violating this win-win principle. These devices are currently not regulated by EPA and can emit nearly 100 times the pollution per hour of a Washington approved wood stove. Worse, irresponsible owners have used them as crude home incinerators, burning garbage, plastic chairs, animal carcasses and diapers. Remember, what goes into that firebox still comes out, often in a more toxic form. Can you imagine living next door to these toxic, smoke-generating machines? Who would do that to their neighbors?

There is hope for a better solution. The Washington State Department of Ecology prohibits the sale of outdoor wood-fired boilers in Washington State and works to help innovators create better boilers. EPA will begin regulating these devices in 2014 so new, much cleaner models are already making their way into the market. There is currently only one indoor wood-fired hydronic heater and only a few pellet-fueled hydronic heaters approved for sale in Washington State. These devices can heat an entire house with no more pollution than from a Washington approved wood stove. That’s a win for home heating, for neighbors and for the environment.

If you have questions about these or other solid fuel burning devices, contact Rod Tinnemore, wood stove coordinator, at the Washington State Department of Ecology, 360-407-6978, rod.tinnemore@ecy.wa.gov . You’ll find the list of Washington approved wood burning devices online at Ecology's woodstove page.

---

Air Time: Pellet Stoves are still a good idea

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Pellet Stoves

The pellet stove manufacturers that I’ve met have been creative people who care about the environment. They envisioned pellet stoves back in the 1970s as a remedy to the open burning of sawdust and wood shavings at lumber mills. Today the crude “tee-pee burners” are gone and those wood by-products are made into pellets or compressed logs that heat homes and produce little pollution.

Pellet stoves now come in many styles and levels of sophistication. Some can burn a variety of other pelletized products. Still others can be operated remotely from a smart phone. Nearly all produce less pollution than most wood stoves.

There are also challenges along with these benefits. Pellet quality is not standardized or regulated, much to the dismay of consumers. Pellets sold as “premium” may in fact be of lesser quality with a higher percentages of bark. They may also contain mixtures of potentially toxic materials like plastics and pressure treated wood. EPA plans to address pellet quality through a national pellet standard in the near future. A strict standard is already in place in Europe.

Another drawback to pellet stoves has been their need for electricity, which renders most of them useless during power outages. Current technology has overcome much of that problem with improved motors, advanced battery back-up systems that can run the stove for days, and even pellet stoves that require no electricity at all.

The cost and transportation of pellets continues to be another challenge. Parts of Europe have replaced their fuel oil delivery network with a wood pellet network. Homes are equipped with bulk hoppers; trucks deliver bulk pellets through pneumatic hoses, and homes utilize high efficiency, very clean pellet devices. The concept is achievable here in the U.S. but price and delivery barriers must be overcome.

Pellet stoves can be stylish, have low emissions and don’t require wood hauling, splitting, and storage. So if you want to burn wood but don’t want the mess or effort of cordwood, consider a modern pellet stove.

For more information about using heating with wood in Washington, see Wood Stoves, Fireplaces, Pellet Stoves and Masonry Heaters.

---

Air Time: Wood Smoke and Survival

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Heating homes

Some of the folks who burn wood to heat their homes are barely able to survive financially. I’ve known years in my life like that, so I can relate. For them, burning the wood they can acquire at little or no cost is a necessity, not a luxury. No one wants to have to choose between putting food on their table and keeping warm, especially if there are children in the home.

There are others who may have cleaner heating options yet select to burn wood to reduce their heating bills, to provide additional comfort to family members with medical needs, or simply because they enjoy it. None of these need be a problem IF stove operators burn properly. While I admire thrift, trying to save a dime by heating improperly with wood just doesn’t make sense or cents. I, too, enjoy the extra warmth from wood heat and own a wood stove, but I make sure there is no smoke coming from the stove after start-up.

Regardless of what kind of stove you own or your motives, you can operate your stove to reduce the impact on yourself, your neighbors and the environment. All it takes is preparation and some attention to detail.

Finding solutions

The Air Quality Program of the Washington State Department of Ecology acknowledges this reality and is working hard to find solutions at many levels.

• We are supporters of innovation, like the National Wood Stove Design Contest, where a staff member is one of the judges. We work with major manufacturers and start-up companies to encourage innovation and help find a pathway toward device certification.
  
  
• We channel grant funds from the Legislature to air agencies conducting wood stove change-out and bounty programs to communities with wood smoke problems.
  
  
• We work closely with EPA to improve that emission standards and test methods for devices that burn wood or pellets.
  
  
• We provide instruction to building inspectors and weatherization staff so they can better understand wood stove issues and needs.

But we can’t solve our wood smoke pollution problems through our efforts alone. It will take all of us, regardless of personal financial resources, to keep the air clean by learning to fuel and operate a wood stove correctly.

Resources

You’ll find lots of good information about proper burning on the instructional videos at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/indoor_woodsmoke/wood_smoke_page.htm.

If you would like to move to cleaner heating options, contact your local air agency about possible programs in your area.

You’ll find a list of Washington State air agencies online at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/local.html. If you help weatherizing your home to reduce your heating costs, contact Washington’s weatherization program at http://www.benefits.gov/benefits/benefit-details/1885.

Thank you for caring for the air we all share.

---

Air Time: Make heat, not smoke

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Operating a clean wood stove

Operating a wood stove properly takes practice and attention. Wood stove technology has not advanced enough to let someone simply throw in wood, light it, close the door and walk away. The term “clean” is relative because any gas, oil, or electric heater produces less direct pollution than a wood stove. There are, however, several ways to reduce pollution from wood stoves.

Cleaner, more efficient wood burning starts with reading your wood stove owner’s manual. If you don’t have or can’t find that manual, at least do these two things:
1) watch this video on proper wood stove operation:


2) go outside regularly to observe how much smoke is coming from your chimney. If you see anything other than a small amount of wispy smoke, you’re doing something wrong. A properly run wood stove should yield only heat waves out the chimney or stack.

Here are some additional tips for cleaner burning:

• Use only seasoned firewood. See the EPA video on selecting dry wood at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM2WGgRcnm0


• Visit Burn Wise at http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/bestburn.html to learn clean burning tips
  
• Build a top-down fire to reduce pollution during start-up. See http://woodheat.org/top-down-fever.html for more information.
  
• Give yourself enough time to properly heat the stove. The owner’s manual should provide guidance. For non-catalytic stoves it may take 45 minutes at full air volume to reach the clean burning, high efficiency temperature.
  
• Be aware of the weather, especially inversions or stagnations, and don’t burn during burn bans. Even if you own an EPA certified wood stove, smoking up your neighborhood is always illegal (and un-neighborly!) so aim for no visible emissions.
  

Using a wood stove is like using a car: proper operation and maintenance is essential for your safety and the safety of others. Be a responsible stove owner. The environment and your neighbors will be happier.

---

Air Time: Smoking Doesn't Make Cents

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

The goal of every wood stove operator is to turn fuel into heat. For some, wood heat is an optional preference. If that’s you, please choose a heating option that is far less polluting, such as a natural gas furnace or a heat pump. For others, however, heating with wood is an economic necessity. No matter what your situation, a smoky stove costs you extra dollars and time.

Every piece of wood contains energy that can be released through burning. If your wood is too wet, your stove spends some of that energy to evaporate the water. Energy spent this way is energy lost for heating your home. You get less heat from wet wood than from dry wood. Less heat also means it takes more wood to keep warm. That means more chopping, more hauling. Whew! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

It also wastes your money if you give too little air to the flame in your stove. You stove will not give you an efficient burn unless it’s operating as designed, with enough air to burn both the wood and most of the smoke. Even if you have a low cost source of wood, your extra efforts to stoke a smoky stove means time lost for doing other things you enjoy and prefer. When you see a smoky chimney, you might as well envision dollar signs flying into the air.

If you want to learn how to get the most heat for your money and keep the air cleaner,  watch this educational video or ask your local hearth products professional to show you how to run a clean burning stove. It only takes a few seconds to glance at your chimney to see if you’re doing the job right.

Remember, smoking doesn’t make cents.

---

Air Time: "But I already know how to operate a wood stove!"

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Did you know that all wood stoves run best with dry, seasoned wood? Do you know the water content of the wood you burn? Did you know that burning garbage is unhealthy and illegal? Do you regularly check to be sure that only heat waves, not smoke, are all that can be seen coming from your chimney?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you may not be quite as informed as you think. Your car or truck is designed to operate with little pollution under a variety of conditions. Not so your wood stove. Your actions as an operator greatly affect what exits your home and fills your neighborhood.

“But my stove is EPA certified!” Even when that’s true, it doesn’t mean it automatically burns cleanly. Your owner’s manual will tell you what is required to make sure the smoke from you stove matches the tested rating of your stove. Vary even a bit from what the manual says and you’ll likely make a pollution problem for yourself and your neighbors.

If you must burn wood, here are some simple guidelines to help you be a better wood stove owner.

• First, burn only dry, well-seasoned wood. Your wood must be split and kept from the rain for at least six month, preferably a year or more.


• Second, make small hot fires that quickly bring your stove to a high temperature before you attempt to reduce the air to you stove. This temperature requirement is less vital with catalytic stoves but be sure your catalytic combustor is cleaned and/or replaced according to the schedule in your owner’s manual.


• Third, always check to see what’s coming out of your chimney. If you see smoke, add more air until you see only heat waves. Smoldering stoves give too little heat and are polluters. Learn to adjust your stove for cleaner burning. Again, never operate a smoky stove.

If all this seems like too much work but you want a wood heater, consider a pellet stove. Their fuel is uniform and low in water content. They are designed to maintain a clean burning flame. Remember, when it comes to wood stoves, don’t smoke! Next time we’ll talk about why a smoking stove doesn’t make cents.

For more information, see Wood Stoves, Fireplaces, Pellet Stoves and Masonry Heaters

---

Air Time: Why all the fuss about wood smoke?

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Ah, the smell of wood smoke. It brings back memories of camp fires and family holiday gatherings for some. For others, it brings memories of trips to the hospital, of lungs burning for air and the sensation of drowning. But humanity has lived with fires for untold centuries so wood smoke must be “natural” and “healthy,” right?Arsenic and mercury are also naturally occurring, but they can be far from harmless.

The issue with wood smoke is not the smell; it’s the tiny particles in the smoke.These very small particles are at least 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.As you breathe smoke, these particles go deeply into your lungs and some even enter your blood stream.They are coated with compounds that came from whatever was burned.The more poorly the wood is burned, the greater the number of harmful compounds.These put a stress on both your heart and lungs. And if you have a disease such as Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or diabetes, your inflammation and distress increases.

So if wood smoke is bad stuff, how come we’re not all dead?That’s another error in thinking.Not everything that is bad will kill you quickly.Through most of human history, people have died from causes other than air pollution because populations were smaller and other diseases caused people to die much younger. However, with life expectancies now near or above 80 years old, an increasing number of people are experiencing the long-term effects of air pollution.According to a recent European report, urban air pollution will soon become the biggest cause of premature death.

What if you don’t care about these health concerns? Well, do you have a child or an elderly parent in your home or your neighborhood?They are especially affected.What about a friend or neighbor with asthma or type I diabetes?If any of these apply, then please be concerned about how your actions affect the health of others.Sometimes people tell me, “What I do in my own home is my business!” If only your smoke also stayed inside your own home, I’d be inclined to agree with you. But we all know that is not the case.

The bottom line: Keep wood burning to a minimum, with the right fuel and the right stove settings to reduce wood smoke pollution.We’ll talk more about how to do that in my next blog.

For more information, see Wood Stoves, Fireplaces, Pellet Stoves and Masonry Heaters

---

Air Time: Just Don't Breathe

By Rod Tinnemore, Wood Stove Coordinator, Air Quality Program

Humans have always lived in an ocean of air. For the bulk of our history, we’ve never given a thought to our ability to take another breath. If there is a fire, the wind eventually blows the smoke so it “disappears” and we keep breathing. We put items into the flames and only ashes come out. Most of it “disappears.”It must be magic! Or at least these are our beliefs.

We may forget, however, that air flows between neighbors, towns, states and countries.Why would we object to polluting a neighbor’s water but ignore polluting a neighbor’s air? Our neighbor may have a choice about using that water, but breathing isn’t a choice. Believe it or not, I’ve had callers suggest that if their neighbors don’t like wood smoke “just tell them not to breathe.”

Air quality, like water quality, is affected by human and natural activity. There are nearly three times as many people living in Washington now as when I was born here. Areas that had one home on each 5- to 10-acre tract now have hundreds. There have also been tremendous increases in traffic and industry, yet technology has greatly reduced the air pollution from many sources. But neither technology nor perception has kept pace with the increased number of people polluting the air from their homes.People continue to burn outdoors and indoors as if neighbors are far away instead of right next door.

Air quality can also be very location dependent. Many areas of the U.S. experience seasons of calm called air stagnation.For many western states, that season occurs during the coldest winter days when wood stove use is the highest. Wood smoke rides layers of cold air and remains near the ground, sometimes for days or longer. I’ve had calls from folks telling me that “my elderly parents are trapped in their home on winter nights because there is so much smoke that they can’t breathe if they go out.” Just don’t breathe, Grandpa?

Like it or not, air is a shared resource. Solving a home heating problem by creating a wood smoke pollution problem is not an adequate solution. Neither is suggesting that people either freeze or don’t breathe. In the weeks ahead I will discuss how to reduce the pollution from a wood stoves and share some facts about wood smoke and your health.

For more information, see Wood Stoves, Fireplaces, Pellet Stoves and Masonry Heaters

---

Air Time: The World of Wood Burning

by Air Quality Program, wood stove coordinator

People use fire as part of nearly every culture. Burning wood to cook food is still vital for much of the world’s population today. Unfortunately, bringing some ancient but unaltered practices into the modern, and often urban, world may not be safe or wise.

The issues related to residential wood burning are as complex as our modern world. In my blog posts, I will explore wood burning issues and perhaps broaden your perceptions. You’ll also learn to decipher some of the more common jargon from both industry and regulators. Along the way I hope you’ll discover why Washington State leads the nation in standards for wood burning devices, but why we still have wood smoke problems and concerns.

I write as both a scientist and wood stove owner. Through the years, I’ve owned and operated pellet stoves, wood stove inserts, catalytic stoves, non-catalytic stoves and fireplaces. (You’ll learn the meaning of these terms as we explore wood burning devices). I’ve made the often stumbling transition from a clueless owner to a careful stove operator. Even though I have an advanced degree is forest resources, the bulk of what I share with you is from my daily interactions with manufacturers, testing labs, retailers and regulators across North America, as well as my own experience.

If you are among the clueless, this is your chance to gently learn more about the issues related to heating with wood. I’m going to assume you care about both a healthy home and a healthy environment, and about making these available to future generations. With that in mind, my next post will set the stage for understanding why wood smoke matters.

For more information, see Wood Stoves, Fireplaces, Pellet Stoves and Masonry Heaters

---