Valley wood-burning bans rise; deaths fall
Smokeless nights are shown to save premature deaths each year.
Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008
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RecommendThere may be a little less holiday warmth this season as San Joaquin Valley air authorities step up wood-burning bans in fireplaces, but the smokeless nights are saving lives.
The wood-burning bans are preventing at least 50 premature deaths each year in the Fresno-Clovis area and about 30 annually in Bakersfield, a new study suggests.
The study was completed last month by David Lighthall, who is the health and science adviser for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
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Lighthall did the research while working as a scientist for the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno.
His work bolsters a district board decision in October to tighten the wood-burning rule, resulting in more no-burn days. Air officials have halted burning on 22 days in Fresno County for November and December. The county had only six for the entire season last year.
Lighthall said the stricter rule is justified.
"Our findings provide the district as well as the public with scientific assurance that substantial future improvements in public health will result," he said.
The value of the lives saved is more than $500 million annually, the study shows. Millions more in health-care costs have been averted.
Burning bans were once a serious public-relations problem for the district, but the public seems more accepting of the action than it was in 2003 when the rule was passed. The rule was required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of a lawsuit settlement.
Mounting research shows the microscopic soot from wood burning is among the biggest air-pollution threats to the public. The specks, known as PM-2.5, can evade body defenses, lodge in the lungs, trigger many illnesses and result in premature death.
A 2007 article called "Woodsmoke Health Effects: A Review" in the scientific journal Inhalation Toxicology described the danger:
"The sentiment that wood smoke, being a natural substance, must be benign to humans is still sometimes heard. It is now well-established, however, that wood-burning stoves and fireplaces as well as wildland and agricultural fires emit significant quantities of known health-damaging pollutants."
More than 800 Valley residents die prematurely each year due to PM-2.5 pollution from many sources. The biggest contribution comes from the combination of vehicle exhaust and dairy ammonia — a speck called ammonium nitrate.
But fireplaces focus PM-2.5 where many people live.
"For densely settled urban neighborhoods, the concentration levels and number of individuals at risk is magnified," the Lighthall study says.
To determine the impact of the air district’s burning bans, Lighthall studied PM-2.5 exposures in three years before the rule was passed.
He found that 54 fewer people would have died in the Fresno-Clovis area if the burning bans had been called in 2001 and 2003.
Sixty-three fewer people would have died in 2002.
Air activists say they support the district’s action in October to tighten the rule. The reduction in sooty air seems dramatic compared with last year, they said.
By the end of December last year, the district had stopped wood burning a total of 24 times for the eight counties.
This year, the no-burn order has been issued 130 times among the eight counties in the same time period.
"I think residents understand what the district is doing with this rule," said Liza Bolaños, coordinator for the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, a nonprofit group representing public health and environmental organizations. "It’s a unique opportunity to protect the people who live here."
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