Where there's smoke, there's sickness
In Washington wood smoke is now a leading cause of air pollution, leaving residents of Tacoma and other highly-polluted areas, literally, gasping for air.
Katie Campbell/EarthFix
Katie Campbell/EarthFix
Editor's note: KCTS/EarthFix story will run at 7 p.m. tonight (Friday, Dec. 16) on KCTS 9 Connects with Enrique Cerna.
The warning label on the wrapping of neatly split firewood is one we're more accustomed to seeing on cigarettes or heavy-duty chemicals — “known… to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm."
But in fact, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, asthma attacks, and premature death – in addition to cancer – are all linked to wood smoke pollution. It’s a finding that poses a vexing dilemma for poor and rural communities around the Northwest, where wood is a cheap or even free source of heat.
And in Tacoma, where the air is so dirty it violates the Clean Air Act, authorities are gearing up for what promises to be an arduous and expensive campaign, over the better part of a decade, to clean up wood smoke pollution. It’s an effort that already has some residents chafing at government interference, and one that will set the stage for policy in other Northwest communities when they bump up against tightened federal pollution standards.
In Tacoma and many other towns across the Northwest, wood smoke is the prime culprit in driving spikes of sooty, toxic air pollution that leave some residents — particularly asthmatics, kids, and the elderly — gasping for breath. It’s especially bad during sunny, cold stretches like those we’ve seen in recent weeks, because atmospheric conditions trap the pollution close to the ground.
Along with fireplaces and other wood-burning heaters, old wood stoves produce about half the microscopic particles of soot that typically hang in the air when winter air stagnates. (By comparison, industry — already heavily regulated — emits just one-tenth of the Tacoma-area soot pollution.)
In Washington, the state Ecology Department estimates that sooty pollution from sources including wood smoke and diesel exhaust contributes to 1,100 deaths and $190 million in health costs annually.
The department says a conservative estimate of the annual number of deaths attributable to soot pollution in Pierce County alone is 140.
The toll in everyday suffering is less easily quantified. But Nancy Gregory, an asthma sufferer who lives southeast of Tacoma near Spanaway, is typical. She says she dreads having to go outside when the winter sky turns blue and air-cleansing rains stop.
“When I walk out to the mailbox, I come back in and sometimes I’m wheezing and I have to go to my inhalers. It makes it hard for me to breathe,” said Gregory, 70. For her husband Bryan, 73, it’s even worse. He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and must breathe from an oxygen tank most of the time. When winter weather turns nice they try to stay inside — but eventually they have to buy groceries and go to doctor’s appointments.
“If he gets a coughing attack, he needs a chair,” Gregory said. “We can’t just let him be walking. He needs something to hold himself up on.”
Restricting the use of the wood stoves that heat so many homes across the Northwest is a difficult proposition though, because many people can get wood for cheap or free, and using a wood stove can greatly reduce electricity and natural-gas bills that run wild in the winter. Installing a new clean-burning stove typically costs $2,000 or more — and many argue that it’s lousy timing to launch an expensive campaign to clean the air; federal standards or no federal standards.
Yet that’s the recommendation of a task force representing local governments, industry, the military, and others involved with soot pollution levels in and around Tacoma. Last week the group voted to recommend removal of all wood stoves that don’t meet current government standards by 2015, in the area violating the Clean Air Act.
“It scares me,” said Gretchen Smith of Puyallup, whose family spends about $380 a month on electricity, including baseboard heaters, even when they use wood heat as a supplemental heat source.
”Most of us are just hoping our cars won’t break down and the fridge won’t go out or we don’t have a medical crisis. … We don’t have much wiggle room in our budget.”
The Smiths’ wood stove, manufactured before federal rules required large increases in efficiency and decreases in pollution, is one of an estimated 24,000 old, heavily polluting wood stoves spread across the area violating the federal law, which includes most of Pierce County, from near Orting to Steilacoom to Commencement Bay.
Other Pacific Northwest communities, including Klamath Falls and Oakridge in Oregon, the Cache Valley of Idaho, and Libby, Montana, are also in violation of the federal Clean Air Act’s rules on soot.
And Washington officials say Yakima, Darrington, Marysville, Vancouver, Wenatchee, and Clarkston are at risk of violating the federal soot standards too.
“We have a number of communities getting up around those [violation] levels and they’re all dominated by wood stoves,” said Stu Clark, manager of the Department of Ecology’s air-pollution program.
Kent, Everett, Olympia, Port Angeles, Spokane, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Lake Forest Park, and south Seattle have also struggled with high soot pollution levels, much of it thought to be traceable to burning wood.
The problem that Tacoma faces today from wood smoke is likely to be a growing problem across the West in years to come, said Jeff Hunt, an air pollution specialist for the EPA’s Seattle-based Region 10. Federal soot standards could be tightened as early as 2012, although it would still be a number of years before they were enforced.
In the meantime, though, health damages mount.
Picture the width of a human hair. Now imagine a speck of toxic-covered dust that is 1/30th as wide. These are the so-called “fine particulates” — soot — that knocked Tacoma into violation of the Clean Air Act. They mostly come from burning wood, diesel, gasoline, and other fuels. And for susceptible people, they can kill.
Exposure to these particles — over even a few hours — can trigger heart attacks and strokes, according to an expert panel’s report for the American Heart Association in May 2010.
The particles are so small that, not only do they get into the lungs, causing respiratory distress, some also cross over into the bloodstream itself.
Wood smoke isn't the only source of the tiny particles — they also come from truck and car exhaust, ships, dust, industry, and sea salt. But it is the biggest. In the Clean Air Act “non-attainment area” in Pierce County, 53 percent of those particles are estimated to come from burning wood on the winter days when the area violates the federal law.
Those tiny particles of soot are only one of the unhealthy byproducts of wood burning. Others include benzene, a potent carcinogen, and a group of chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are linked to cancer in laboratory test animals. Not only can these hydrocarbons cross the placental barrier in pregnant women, one study suggests prenatal exposure to them tends to lower a baby’s IQ and increase the risk of asthma.
Carbon monoxide is also a byproduct. The poison has been shown to cause chest pain in people with heart disease because it reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the body and it can cause permanent heart damage.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 5:42 a.m. Inappropriate
According to Washington's Department of Ecology, automobile exhaust is the "leading cause of air pollution in Washington".
Is their a "leading cause" tag in every activist's basket?
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/cars/automotive_pages.htm
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 9:55 a.m. Inappropriate
We have been very lucky these last few decades in terms of having an abundance of relatively clean fuels. Most Crosscut readers have doubtless read the stories of what the air was like back when people burned coal in big cities. My Boston grandmother thought the air there was wonderfully clean in her later years compared to in her youth. Now that there are so many more of us, I fear what might happen should the clean gas and oil become out of reach for many. We need a massive effort to weatherize homes and move to alternative energy sources while we still have the oil to power us through the transition.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 12:09 p.m. Inappropriate
Good catch, BlueLight. We've fixed the headline to say wood smoke is "a" leading cause. Here's the deal Year-round, cars and trucks are the leading cause of air pollution. In the winter in many towns and even some cities, such as Tacoma, wood smoke represents the largest source of particulate matter that causes violations of the Clean Air Act. Thanks again.
Snoqualman: You're absolutely right that we've done a lot to clean up the air and that weatherizing homes would of course make a big difference, no matter how you heat your home.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 12:38 p.m. Inappropriate
Thanks for starting the picture. Here's some thoughts on completing it so that it includes all factors and their duration throughout the year.
E.g., in addition to the factor raised by BlueLight, what about the region's huge increase in commercial airline traffic? Items routinely left outside began to be chronically filthy starting in the early 1980s. This continues throughout the year.
The implication's that the noted health problems are a case of low-hanging fruit— the copings of those with modest incomes. Prove it by letting us in on where the sacred cows fit in. However, don't wait for that before looking into effective, healthier ways these folks can stay warm while at the same time keeping food on the table, e.g Snoqualman. Re-prioritize public budget's not just theirs.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 1:02 p.m. Inappropriate
This is a personal issue to me. Where I live on Whidbey Island there is a neighbor who keeps their stove perpetually damped down and burning 24 hours a day, even when they're not home for extended periods. I've got asthma and for 8-9 months a year if I go outside I can count on having to huff albuterol. And this is nowhere near a city.
That said, these sorts of bad actors (including, for example, the idiot in the article who threatened to remove their electric heat so they could just burn wood) are not the primary problem. The bad actors can be dealt with through some serious enforcement - including possibly criminal charges, but most people can be educated to understand that the pollution they're producing is affecting not only they're neighbors, but also themselves.
The solution here is going to require integration with and ramping up the various energy efficiency and conservation programs. The woman in the article whose family uses probably ancient baseboard heaters and spends up to $300 a month on electricity is a prime candidate for serious home weatherization and retrofitting with other heating methods, such as mini-split air heat exchangers. Those sorts of retrofits will pay for themselves unbelievably fast, but you can take it as a given that most people will not have the up front capital to do this. The obvious solution is to use a program structured like PACE - Property Assessed Clean Energy.
In a PACE program, the upfront costs are financed through government issued bonds. The government agency is then paid back through an additional assessment added to property taxes. To date, most PACE programs have been oriented around deployment of clean energy generation such as residential solar PV. The twist to make such a program fit better in this situation is to link the payback to the energy savings such that all parties immediately start getting a payback. There would need to be substantial government support and coordination for such a program.
How might such a program work? For example, the woman whose family is spending up to $300 a month would qualify by virtue of having a wood stove. This would also apply to landlords. Period. No means test. No home ownership requirement. An energy audit gets conducted on the structure. The audit differs from those typically performed by electric utilities because its focus is on all forms of energy, not just electricity. The audit concludes that basic weatherization will cut the structure's heating load by 40% and installation of a mini-split air heat exchanger will be sufficient to provide all heating except when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Use of newer more efficient electric heating can then provide an adequate heat source. Total installation and appliance cost = $6,000. Avoided annual costs = $400 ( 2 cords firewood) + $800 (4 months electricity) = $1200/year. The owner of the structure (whether resident or landlord) pays the agency back at a rate of 2/3 the savings, more than adequate to service the bonds that finance the program. They get immediate savings for their household budget and a much more comfortable structure to live in.
This sort of wholistic conservation oriented approach will be much more effective and doable than simply trying to replace old stoves with new. It also has far more beneficial impact, not just fixing the particulate pollution problem, but also having a huge knock on effect in terms of energy conservation, local jobs, etc. The barriers to doing this are not technical, but structural. Can our society actually be flexible and creative enough to use solutions like this or is it to trapped in its old structures to effectively respond to the problems those old structures created?
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 1:04 p.m. Inappropriate
I'd like to see more info on the number of days different areas are actually out of compliance. In Pierce County, my recollection is that it's only on inversion-type stagnant air days, and even then the concentrations are just marginally over the levels in a lot of other parts of the Puget Sound area. Also, I'd like to see some more specific info on the relative contribution of Port/industrial activities in Tacoma compared to wood smoke, traffic, etc. I have a possibly paranoid suspicion that homeowners are being singled out in part to protect the status quo at the Port and Simpson Kraft.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 3:49 p.m. Inappropriate
From what I've read, the particulate levels in the air are much higher in the Fern Hill residential area of Tacoma than they are anywhere near the Port. That suggests that home heating and vehicular traffic would be the major contributors--not industry.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 5:29 p.m. Inappropriate
Good discussion here, folks. Pika, you are correct that the bad-air days are mostly when we have inversions, although the Tacoma readings are significantly higher than most places around here. And we've also heard from folks who are susceptible to wood smoke, like Steve E., who have chronic problems throughout the fall and winter because of local conditions.
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 9:07 p.m. Inappropriate
Good discussion? Despite being started with misinformation?
Posted Fri, Dec 16, 11:43 p.m. Inappropriate
I live in Mason County and the biggest problem with air pollution in my neighborhood during an inversion are the school buses warming up down the road. It's 24/7 diesel odor during the entire inversion event. On my daily walk I see exactly zero wood stoves in use. There's a simple reason, lack of wood. Timber companies and public land management agencies are now harvesting second growth with better utilization. There isn't enough wood left over for firewood on any thing but a minuscule scale. We switched natural gas as did most in our area.
I do have a wood stove in my shop and a small cache of dry seasoned fire wood for emergencies as do several of people in the area. But we gave up on wood heat as a primary source long years ago because of shrinking availability. This makes me wonder where the 24,000 wood stove users are getting their wood. Old stoves, so figure 4 cords of wood/year and you have 96,000 cords of fire wood, that measure 4'x4'x8'. End to end this is 768,000 ft or 145.5 miles of wood 4' wide by 4' high. The total square feet involved is 12,288,000. All in all a lot of wood and it has to be obtained and burned each and every year for the article to be anywhere accurate.
I'm skeptical. In fact I'm sure the entire premise is bullshift. Oh, there's wood smoke but the agencies really don't have a clue about the amount of wood smoke pollution. I'll bet the numbers are WAGs at best and maybe's at worst. The key is the amount of firewood needed by the "estimated" 24,000 wood stoves out there. Craig's List doesn't have close to 1,000 cords let along 96,000 of wood listed for sale. I'm thinking the government is once again telling us lies. Of course people love hearing lies they believe. To bad the math doesn't support them.
Posted Sat, Dec 17, 8:27 a.m. Inappropriate
The State wants "revenue", Djinn (always more). The environmental community wants regulation (always more). The "press" is at-the-ready to help.
Posted Sat, Dec 17, 3:37 p.m. Inappropriate
Seems like Blue Light is on the right track here! In a time when moneys tight they want to add more Gov. employees,not to mention more government rules!
Posted Sat, Dec 17, 6:54 p.m. Inappropriate
How true BlueLight. Sadly the mission of government has become to keep itself fat and well fed. Never mind sensible rules or legislation. Oh well, the good citizens deserve what they elect.
Posted Sat, Dec 17, 9:37 p.m. Inappropriate
Worse than an insatiable government is a "press" committed to help feed it.
Posted Sun, Dec 18, 10:01 a.m. Inappropriate
When I read the article I was thinking along the same lines as Steve E. If we can help wood heating people reduce their heating needs with energy audits and assistance with installing the appropriate weatherization then they will need to burn less wood. And the transition to a cleaner heating source may be easier if they are spending less on heating or if the new heating option is less expensive because it costs less to heat an energy efficient home. The heat source that Steve E. called a mini-split air heat exchanger is actually called a ductless mini-split heat pump. Air heat exchangers are not heat sources they just capture some of the air you are exhausting and put it into air you are bringing into the home. I had a ductless mini-split heat pump installed in my home a year ago, I love it, it reduced the heating bills by about 30%, and I rarely use my backup heat, wood stove. For what it is worth, I have been an energy and water conservation, and green building consultant for 28 years and I have been carrying out energy audits on Vashon thru the Puget Sound Energy Home Print program for the last 2 years.
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