Environmental Psychology considers two issues with wood burning

fireplaces. What's important to you? Your home environment for

emotional support or saving the environment?

If you plan to move to a new home or to build a home, you may

draw a line through a fireplace as a necessity. Although people

love the warmth, comforting crackling sounds, aromas, and moving

light a wood burning fire provides, fireplaces can emit polluted

air into your home and into your neighborhood.

Most home shoppers request a fireplace. Home buyers desire a

hearth, which symbolizes home. Families gather around the

fireplace during holiday celebrations and quiet conversations.

Book lovers enjoy curling up next to a fire on a cool afternoon.

Many new homes feature fireplaces in the main bedroom. After

all, what's more romantic than a fire?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, wood-burning

fireplaces emit nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, organic gases,

and particulate matter. These pollutants can cause serious

health problems for children, pregnant women, and people with

respiratory problems. Like cigarette smoke, some of these

elements contain cancer-causing properties.

Some urban cities have considered banning wood-burning

fireplaces altogether to stem the flow of pollutants in the

smog-filled air. Some California cities and counties have

enacted local ordinances to limit the growing wood smoke

problem. Mammoth Lakes, Squaw Valley, Cloverdale, Fresno, and

many cities and counties in the Bay Area permit installation of

only U.S.EPA certified wood-fired appliances in all new

construction. Since 1991, the Bay Area AQMD has issued

advisories for a voluntary no-burn program on poor air quality

nights, "Spare the Air Tonight."

But wait! Solutions exist so you can enjoy your fire. To keep

pollutants from entering your room air, you can install a

certified clean-burning fireplace insert and a glass screen. Buy

a carbon monoxide monitor and an oxygen-depletion sensor to

ensure safe air. The new fireplace systems keep pollutants from

leaving your chimney.

Other considerations for you to ponder include the source of

heating for your home. What happens when natural gas demand

outpaces production? Prices skyrocket. And if your heat comes

from a coal-burning electrical plant, doesn't the burning coal

produce toxins that pollute the air?

If you're building a new home, consider installing a Pellet

Stove, the most efficient and least polluting of the new stove

designs. Pellet Stoves provide less than 1 gram per hour of

particulate emissions. Most of these stoves s require

electricity and burn compressed wood waste formed into pellets.

Be kind to yourself and to the environment. Consider these

environmental issues when you light up your fire.

Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

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