Wood burning pollution leads to 8,600 premature US deaths a year, study finds

"The research team divided the continental US into 839,000 grid squares. Hourly pollution was calculated for for each square, once with residential wood combustion and once without. Shlipak said: We had the preconceived notion that residential wood combustion was predominantly a rural phenomenon, but we found that it has a substantial impact on urban and suburban populations in and around many of the US's largest cities. Owing to cold night-time temperatures, wood burning also affected places considered to have warm climates, including Los Angles."

"Another 8% burn wood for pleasure, aesthetics or supplementary heating, but combined they produce 21% of the country's wintertime particle pollution. Prof Daniel Horton, of Northwestern University, who led the new study, said: We frequently hear about the negative health impacts of wildfire smoke, but we rarely consider the consequences of burning wood to heat our homes. Kyan Shlipak, first author of study said: I was shocked by the percentage of particle pollution coming from residential wood burning."

Residential wood burning in US homes is estimated to cause about 8,600 premature deaths each year. About 2% of homes use wood for primary heating and another 8% burn wood for pleasure, aesthetics, or supplementary heating, yet these households produce roughly 21% of the country's wintertime particulate pollution. The continental US was divided into 839,000 grid squares and hourly pollution was calculated with and without residential wood combustion. Residential wood burning substantially affects urban and suburban populations, can impact warm-climate cities during cold nights, becomes trapped by valleys and mountains, and spreads pollution from suburbs into densely populated city areas, raising environmental justice concerns.

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