December 05, 2003

Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Friday, December 05, 2003

Air district focuses on winter nights

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District expects seven to 10 Spare the Air Tonight advisories to be issued this winter and asks that people do not burn wood in their fireplaces or stoves.

"The worst kind of air pollution is created by burning wood," said Jack Broadbent, head of the Air District. "There is abundant health and scientific data on the dangers of exposure to the tiny particles in wood smoke, so we will be asking the public to break the wood burning habit, especially during a Spare the Air Tonight advisory."

Increased advisories are a result of new stricter federal standards for small particulate matter. The standards were adopted because the matter can lodge deep in the lungs, which is especially harmful for the young and the elderly, and for those with asthma or emphysema. The main source of the matter in the Bay Area is wood smoke and driving.

The advisories are issued when unhealthy levels of air pollution are predicted. They are announced at 10 a.m. for the next 24 hours.

Summer smog peaks in the later afternoon but wintertime pollution is highest at night and in the early morning hours, according to the Air District. On winter evenings, cold air sinks near the ground under a layer of warmer air, forming a shallow inversion. When there is no wind to dissipate pollutants, they become trapped under this inversion layer.

The toxins and carcinogens from wood smoke include benzene, formaldehyde, dioxin and carbon monoxide, which are the same chemicals found in tobacco. Wood burning accounts for 30 percent of the small particulate matter, according to the Air District. At some locations in the North Bay and the South Bay, it reports, wood smoke contributes more than motor vehicles on an average winter day. -Dolores Fox Ciardelli

Winter tips for sparing the air

E-mail a friend a link to this story.