Air Quality and Burning Trivia

 

1. With landfill sites filling up fast, and the costs of disposal rising, does it make sense to reduce household garbage by burning paper and cardboard in a wood stove?

No, burning waste of any kind can produce serious environmental consequences. Paper and cardboard can have toxic inks, plastic coatings and unknown chemical additives. Few if any of these contaminants are destroyed at the temperatures common in wood stoves. The result is an unknown toxic cocktail of smoke from the chimney. Wood stoves are tested and certified for use only with clean, seasoned, uncoated firewood. Small amounts of uncolored newspaper can be used to light fires because newsprint is usually the least processed form of paper and some newspaper inks are vegetable-based, although others still contain petroleum. The best way to reduce household waste is to reject heavily packaged products and recycle the packaging you do buy.

2. Doesn’t wood heating cause a lot more house fires than oil, gas or electricity?

No, but it used to. Wood heating systems caused many house fires in the 1970s and early 1980s when tens of thousands of homeowners turned to wood heating in response to the first energy crisis of those years. The problem back then was that there were virtually no safety systems in place to help in the correct installation of wood heating systems. Homeowners tended to think that wood heat safety was just a matter of 'common sense', so they installed stoves themselves without much guidance.

Starting in the early 1980s when it became apparent that there was a serious safety problem with wood heating, government and industry rushed to develop safety standards. These led to much better stoves, fireplaces and furnaces that were accompanied by reliable installation instructions giving safe installation clearances. The industry is now much more sophisticated. Wood stoves are tested and certified for low smoke emissions as well as safety. Installers and chimney sweeps have become professionally certified by attending courses and passing examinations. The result has been a dramatic reduction in house fires related to wood heating. Today, a correctly installed, operated and maintained wood heating system is no more likely to cause a house fire than an oil, gas or electric heating system.