What makes a successful woodsmoke-reduction program - peer-reviewed research paper published in Air Quality and Climate Change, August/November 2016.
Launceston's woodsmoke program reduced deaths in winter from respiratory disease by 28% and cardiovascular disease by 20%. Year round, for men, the reductions were 23% (respiratory), 18% (cardiovascular) and 11.4% (all deaths).
Lead researcher, Dr Fay Johnston & colleagues published the results in
the British Medical Journal.
The slide below, from Dr Johnson's 2016 talk to the international woodsmoke researchers network, summarizes the latest research showing that the only effective way to reduce woodsmoke is to replace wood heaters with non-polluting heating. Stricter emissions standards, education on correct operation of wood heaters and catalysts have all been shown to be ineffective.
Woodheating accounts for 47% of Montreal’s PM2.5 pollution, including 45 winter days from Nov 2008 to March 2009 with PM2.5 levels exceeding the standard. PM2.5 cause an estimated 6,028 cases of infantile bronchitis, 40,449 days of asthma symptoms and 1,540 premature deaths every year in Montreal.
Montreal has freezing cold winters. Daily minimum temperatures average -13C in January; daily maxima average -5C. Despite the cold climate, installation of all new wood stoves was banned from 28 April 2009, to protect people’s health. Community support was gained when people learned that using a wood stove for 9 hours created more pollution than using a mid-size car for an entire year.
The results appear to have paid off - the number of smoggy days in winter (where PM2.5 concentrations exceed 35 μg/m3 for more than 3 hours over 75% of Montréal) fell from 29 in 2009 to 10 in 2013.
These effective policies can be contrasted with policies that focus on correct operation of wood heaters. In a submission to the Federal Government in 2013 on wood-heater regulation, Armidale Dumaresq council stated: “It is estimated that Council has committed more than $300,000 (excluding wages) in the past 10 years on wood smoke abatement measures”. Despite this, recent data (2012-14) show PM2.5 from May to August averaged 14.9 mg/m3 at the CBD, compared to 13.9 mg/m3 for June to August 1999.
Motreal earmarks $6 million to end wood burning. Studies have shown that neighbourhoods where woodburning is common have increased hospital admissions for asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments, and that this type of air pollution causes premature death. Montreal outlawed new installations of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces two years ago. At the time, critics said this would only stop an already intolerable problem from getting worse. Alan De Sousa, the city's executive committee member responsible for environmental issues, said "Our first step was to cap the growth in wood-burning appliances, and this new funding from the province will allow us to introduce a rebate program to start to make a dent in the number of wood stoves and fireplaces already installed."
Sidney Ribaux of Equiterre said the goal is the removal or replacement of as many of these appliances as possible."If you consider that using a wood-burning stove for nine hours generates the same quantity of fine particles as a car does in one year, you can understand that this program will make a major improvement in Montreal's air quality."
A letter from the Directeur - Environnement in 2014 explained why the only option to protect public heath was to phase out log-burning heaters: For many years now, Montreal has conducted public awareness campaigns on wood-burning best practices. Unfortunately, no air quality improvement had been observed. In contrast, since the installation of new log-burning heaters was banned in 2009, the number of smoggy days in winter (where PM2.5 concentrations exceed 35 μg/m3 for more than 3 hours over 75% of Montréal) fell from 29 in 2009 to 10 in 2013.
Pellet heaters, like the one pictured here, are still permitted. See also http://www.equiterre.org/en/communique/woodstove-and-fireplace-changeout-program-for-the-island-of-montreal-%E2%80%93-official-launch-of
Christchurch & Otago, NZ - no woodburners in new houses. After health studies showed that the areas with the highest levels of woodsmoke had 68% more respiratory deaths, 22% more circulatory deaths and 16% more total deaths, Christchurch banned use of all models over 15 year old. In Otago, those rated more than 1.5 g/kg to be removed by 1 Jan 2012; new heaters installed as replacements for more polluting models must be rated less than 0.7 g/kg.
Sydney and Canberra
Several Sydney councils do not permit the installation of solid fuel heaters e.g. Waverley and Holroyd, with others requiring non-polluting heating in new developments, e.g. Manooka Valley, Oran Park and Turner Road Growth Precincts. In Canbera, woodheaters are not permitted in the new residential suburbs of the Molonglo Valley because of air quality concerns.
The Bay Area's Spare the Air Facebook Cover Page explains the problem
YouTube video alerting people to the fact that wood smoke and cigarette smoke contain similar mixtures of toxic chemicals. Many Californian cities have ‘Spare the Air’ days; on windless days when use of woodheaters would lead to exceedences of the air quality standards, woodheating is not permitted.
Palo Alto banned wood-burning fireplaces (only gas fireplaces are allowed) in new buildings in 2000 to reduce dioxin emissions. One of their leaflets explains: "Woodsmoke is also an important source of dioxins and other toxic compounds. Wood-smoke contributes 39 percent of dioxin air emissions in the Bay Area ... In the Bay Area, woodsmoke can become a water pollution problem all too easily. Some of the particles and related toxics in the air fall back into the Bay and into our watersheds, where it washes into waterways. The toxic effects of this transformation of air pollution into water pollution are now documented. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently listed San Francisco Bay as impaired due to the buildup of dioxins and other contaminants in the tissues of fish."
California’s Healthy Hearths Program bans all wood burning devices in new buildings and also bans use of all wood burning devices whenever PM2.5 pollution is forecast to exceed the air quality standard.
Woodheaters are said to emit more than four times the PM2.5 pollution of all the power plants in the area.
Dublin banned smoky home heating - 2,000 fewer deaths over 6 years