Environmental Health 

Burning issue: Gasping for breath

Partner: 
Chico Enterprise-Record
Oroville Mercury-Register
Summary: 

In the winter, Butte County suffers from a number of bad air quality days that have serious health consequences for the elderly and those with respiratory conditions. We examine the politics and science behind the debate over whether wood stove-generated smoke pollution constitutes a threat to residents’ health. In a county with a long history of heavy dependence on stoves as a source of heat and a bountiful supply of inexpensive wood, this is a heated question.

Impact Summary: 

In the winter, Butte County suffers from a number of bad air quality days that have serious health consequences for the elderly and those with respiratory conditions. We examine the politics and science behind the debate over whether wood stove-generated smoke pollution constitutes a threat to residents’ health. In a county with a long history of heavy dependence on stoves as a source of heat and a bountiful supply of inexpensive wood, this is a heated question.

Results
Does wood smoke health risk warrant regulation?
Steve Schoonover | May 13, 2010
On the evening of Dec. 8 last year, Butte County residents hurried home from work, eager to reach the warmth of their homes. The area was in the grip of a cold snap, with highs in the mid-40s for several days and overnight temperatures in the low 20s. As soon as they arrived home, in thousands of those dwellings fires were lit in fireplaces or wood-burning stoves to drive off the chill. Smoke began drifting out of numerous chimneys. The smoke was mostly carbon monoxide, with some carbon dioxide, other gases and water vapor. Suspended in the mix were microscopic bits of ash and tar, residue from the burned wood. And while warmth spread inside, pollution levels outside rose above federal health standards.
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Ordinance would limit use of non-EPA-certified stoves
Staff Reports | May 13, 2010
The city of Chico's proposed wood-burning ordinance is based on the air pollution control rule that was rejected by the Butte County Air Quality Management District's board last September. The law would ban use of non-EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplaces on days when bad air quality conditions are forecast. The EPA says the certified stoves only release 2-7 grams of smoke an hour, compared to older stoves that can spew 15-30 grams per hour.
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Chico hourly particulate levels for five days in December
Staff | May 13, 2010
This chart shows hourly particulate pollution levels as measured at the Chico air pollution monitor, installed and operated by the California Air Resources Board. During the period of Dec. 7-11, 2009, the device recorded spikes, shown on the chart above, that are one reason residential wood burning is assessed the bulk of the blame for Chico's particulate problem. If the pollution were caused by traffic or agricultural burns, levels would be higher during the day, when burns are conducted and there's more traffic.
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Is The Problem Really the Monitor?
Steve Schoonover | May 13, 2010
The real cause of Chico's particulate pollution problem, some skeptics say, is the California Air Resources Board's pollution monitor in town. Why is there only one? Why is it right next to the freeway, where it will surely show higher air pollution numbers? In fact, Highway 99 is about a quarter-mile from the monitor. Its location is based on criteria set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, according to Karen Moliano, chief of the CARB's air quality data branch in Sacramento.
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What people say...
Larry Mitchell | May 13, 2010
"Fines for people who want to heat their homes with wood? It's a very unnatural thing. It's ludicrous." So said Nancy Lambrix, 79, who burns wood and plans to continue "until I leave this world." Lambrix, who still works part time for an optometrist, said the thought of stove regulations really irks her. "I'm so tired of those government people telling me how I should live my life," she said. "Government is getting very intrusive. There's got to be a level of sanity out there."
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Gasping for breath - Fires are like a smoke bomb for vulnerable people
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 14, 2010
When 82-year-old Darrell McGillis steps outside to fetch the newspaper on a cool winter morning, his lungs serve as his personal barometer. If Chico's air is thick with chimney smoke, his nostrils and lungs begin to burn. "If I spend any time out there, I have to take a breath of my inhaler when I get back inside," said McGillis, a cardiac patient, asthmatic and former smoker whose lungs are wracked with a chronic disorder. He relies on three separate prescription devices to ease his breathing. On smoky days, he stays indoors.
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Doctor knows firsthand the effects of smoke on lungs
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 14, 2010
Dr. Mark Miller has seen firsthand how wood smoke can affect the lungs of Butte County's youngest residents. As a Chico pediatrician for 13 years, he treated many local infants and children exposed to smoke from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Today he is director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at UC San Francisco. He recently co-authored a review about how chemicals can alter young lungs that appears in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a prominent journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
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Scientists take a hard look at wood-stove emissions
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 14, 2010
Science is swiftly turning upside down the common notion that a fire built with wood is kinder to humans' well-being than gas and other modern fuels. From California to Sweden and China, researchers are reporting that wood smoke contains large amounts of harmful pollutants, including some of the same toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Those reports seem counter-intuitive. After all, wood is a natural substance, a heat source since prehistoric times and a seemingly safe alternative to dirty fossil fuels.
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The experts speak about wood smoke...
Staff | May 14, 2010
The Enterprise-Record asked physicians, research scientists and other experts in Chico and nationwide how tiny particles and other ingredients of wood smoke may affect people's health. Their responses: "Wood smoke definitely has a negative health impact."— Mark Lundberg, MD, Butte County public health officer and president, Butte-Glenn Medical Society
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What people say...
Larry Mitchell | May 14, 2010
'The smell ... is suffocating and very worrisome' No one complains about Patricia Puterbaugh's wood stove. "We live in Cohasset, and the smoke dissipates before it bothers anyone," she said. Nevertheless, Puterbaugh, 59, is concerned about smoke pollution. She's a registered nurse at Enloe Medical Center. "When I drive to Chico, I absolutely notice the smell of the stoves on cold nights, and it is suffocating and very worrisome."
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Abundant wood means cheap heat for homes
Staff writers Heather Hacking and Toni Scott | May 15, 2010
Satellite images show the city of Chico nearly surrounded by miles of neatly separated rectangles of trees, all in tidy orchards along Anita, Dayton, and Chico River roads. The wood from just four of those trees can heat a Butte County home for a year, So it's little wonder that Merilee Lambert's family has been able to make a living selling wood-burning stoves since her grandfather opened up shop in 1937. As Chico's largest supplier of wood stoves, Lambert's Masonry now also sells pellet stoves, but the backbone of her business relies on customers who fetch wood from their back yards. Lambert's is one of a number of businesses built on the abundance of wood in the county, a hard fact that is woven into the region's economy and way of life.
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For many, burning wood an economic necessity of life
Toni Scott, Staff Writer | May 15, 2010
CHICO — For Chico couple Sarah and Ron Young, burning wood is not about the sounds and smells of a roaring fireplace, or evoking fond memories of hearthside family gatherings. It is about economic necessity. The Youngs, both in their 30s, purchased their Chico home in 2008, planning to renovate the 1953 house near lower Bidwell Park as their income allowed. Sarah Young is a teacher, her husband works in construction, and they have a 1-year-old daughter.
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What people say...
Larry Mitchell | May 15, 2010
'I love my wood stove' "I love my wood stove. I burn it as often as I can," said Cece Bunch, 60, who lives in south Chico. Bunch, who retired from Bank of America, lives with her husband on a limited income and finds wood an affordable source of heat. She thinks smoke from wood fires probably does cause health problems, but so do many things, she said. She'd like to know how big a health problem it is.
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Finding solutions - Butte's first venture into wood stove vouchers went fast
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 16, 2010
Butte County's clean air experts recently scraped together $20,000 for a program to help pay residents using wood heat to buy cleaner-burning stoves. They knew that such change-out programs have successfully reined in wood smoke pollution in other California communities, and that as air grows cleaner, human health can improve. That would be welcome in the Chico area, where doctors blame smoke from an estimated 15,000 stoves for aggravating asthma and chronic lung disease.
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After years of waiting, Ann Marie Robinson was first in line for a new stove voucher
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 16, 2010
Year after year, Ann Marie Robinson longed for the money to replace the old wood-burning stove in the fireplace of her Chico living room. She hates the cold, and the stove — at least 21 years old — didn't burn hot enough to keep her warm. For five years, she had suffered from a cough that her doctors couldn't explain. Then she read in the newspaper that $20,000 in vouchers for brand-new stoves would be given out in March on a first-come basis at the office of the Butte County Air Quality Management District.
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Three case studies...
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | May 16, 2010
Conversion Went Smoothly in Montana The town of Libby, Mont., is emerging as a model for how to clean the air by replacing old stoves with new ones. Like Chico, the town is in a valley where wood smoke can get trapped close to the ground during the winter. So, starting in 2005, the local health department replaced nearly 1,200 older stoves with new wood stoves, pellet stoves or gas or electric heat. They used money from the Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Montana, stove industry and other sources. Some Libby residents, like some in Butte County, were wary of what they saw as government interference with their personal heating choices.
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What makes the EPA-certified stoves so much cleaner?
Larry Mitchell | May 16, 2010
They burn pollutants that would otherwise get into the air, said Marilee Lambert, office manager at Lambert's Masonry Supply, which sells the stoves in Chico. When a fireplace or old wood stove burns wood, some of the fuel turns into gases, which are released into the air, she said. The new EPA-approved stoves are designed to burn those gases, thus eliminating much of the pollution. They also burn wood more completely, reducing the number of unburned bits of ash and tar that escape out the chimney.
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Wood stove regulation old hat in Reno
Steve Schoonover | May 16, 2010
RENO — Wood stove regulation is old hat in Reno, as wood-burning limitations have been in effect since 1987. And unlike Chico, the process wasn't terribly contentious, at least not in the memory of Andy Goodrich, director of the Air Quality Management Division of the Washoe County Health District. He thinks that may be because in Reno, in a small bowl-like valley, bad air is very visible.
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Editorial: Smoky problem can be alleviated
Chico Enterprise-Record Staff | May 16, 2010
Our view: Swapping out older wood stoves for newer stoves is the solution. Political leaders can and should find funding to help that happen. Today a four-day look at our local wood smoke controversy wraps up in the Enterprise-Record, and we hope a little light has been shined on the issue.
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What people say...
Larry Mitchell | May 16, 2010
'I don't have the right to pollute my neighborhood' Ray Rummell drives a full-size pickup and says he's no "environmental nut." But when it comes to wood smoke, he doesn't want it. "I don't have the right to pollute my neighborhood, and neither does anyone else," he said. Rummell, 74, a retired professor who has lived in Chico since 1968, said he installed a fireplace insert in his home in 1980. But after reading in newspapers and news magazines about the health hazards of wood smoke, he had his fireplace converted to natural gas.
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Ozone the other pollution: Cars, trucks are culprits
Staff Reports | October 14, 2010
The biggest contributors to air pollution in Butte County are cars and trucks. But they're minor players when it comes to the winter particulate pollution problem, according to air pollution officials. Instead, they're one of the culprits in a summertime pollution that in Butte County also exceeds federal health standards: ozone.
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Impact of "Burning Issue"
Staff | October 26, 2010
“A Burning Issue” was published over four days starting May 13, 2010, in the Chico Enterprise-Record and the Oroville Mercury Register, MediaNews dailies at the northern reach of the Central Valley.  The 29-story series scrutinized one of the region’s most serious health issues:  how smoke from wood-burning stoves can affect human health, and what can be done about it.  The project included a comprehensive look at the science linking stove smoke with asthma, chronic lung disease and heart problems. It chronicled the state’s fragmented regulatory approach to controlling wood smoke pollution, with the state air board delegating stove smoke to beleaguered local air districts.
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