Fiery debate
>> Citizens and experts examine the proposition that heating with wood stoves is bringing hell on earth to Quebec

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

After the ice storm, Quebeckers—who traditionally heated their homes with wood more than other provincial residents—further embraced wood stoves as a heating resource, leading some to warn that our air is suffering an environmental apocalypse. The Mirror presents these informed views from experts and concerned citizens over our unrestricted right to heat with wood.

Edwidge Skulska, a retiree from St-Bruno explains how she was driven into anti-smoke activism by a neighbour’s wood stove.

“Since the ice storm, residents of St-Bruno, like a lot of places in Quebec, are burning wood non-stop with old wood stoves. When you walk around you can smell the smoke and see it coming from chimneys all over. My neighbour is a lawyer specializing in urban planning and he burns wood all day and night and it’s really irritating. I can’t take a shower, my garage is always full of smoke. I can’t dry clothes on the line and my house stinks. I sent him a cease and desist order but he replied that we can heat with what we want. I’ve been lobbying the governments for a law saying that wood stoves must conform to the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards but they say, ‘We’re taking your demand into consideration.’ I’m miserable. I don’t know what it’s like to breathe fresh air anymore. I wrote an article in the local paper about the issue and I got 50 letters back. There’s a big difference between old stoves and the new ones, but some say even the new ones smell. Recently we’ve convinced the province to give $50,000 for a local buyback program where people can bring their old wood stoves and get a reduction on a new wood stove. There seems to be a lot of demand for that.”

Ronald Poissant, a veteran official at the MUC (now Montreal) Environment Department, raises the red flag on wood stoves.

“We (Montreal) are interested in wood-oven heating because it’s a major source of pollution, particularly in urban areas and suburbs. Combustion is an inefficient means of heat. It might be cheap but it pollutes a lot and it’s even dangerous in that it affects the quality of air inside houses. Some people like the smell but when you smell it, it’s time to worry because the wood emits lots of toxins. Older wood stoves are particularly inefficient and they emit lots of pollution. They can be a nuisance in residential areas. In fact, 25 per cent of air pollution caused by human activity comes from wood heating, a problem mostly concentrated in the winter. Some of the emissions are cancerous. Lots of people think wood burning is benign, but in fact it’s scary because it emits a soup of chemicals that we should avoid putting in our environment. We want provincial laws banning all wood stoves that don’t conform to EPA standards and we want wood heating banned in places where the quality of air is—or is forecast to be—bad. We also want to encourage good burning practices. People should burn hard, dry wood. Plus, many burn other stuff too. They put rubber in their ovens to make it burn better, some put used diapers, any old garbage just to get rid of it. That’s terrible for the environment.”

Daniel Olivier, an engineer at the Association of Heating Professionals (APC), takes issue with Poissant’s views, particularly the notion that 25 per cent of Quebec’s human-made air pollution is caused by wood stoves.

“Can he (Poissant) prove this? We’ve asked that question many, many times and he’s never been able to say on what basis he claims that. We agree that the old wood stoves should be banished because they perform badly and pollute a lot. For the last 10 years our organization has asked the government to make a national law to oblige wood stove manufacturers and installers to conform to EPA standards. Right now, many wood stove manufacturers don’t want to invest the $50,000 extra it would take to bring their product up to code. They’ll do it when they’re forced, but right now it’s not compulsory. In the States all the necessary tests have been done that demonstrate that old wood stoves pollute, yet meanwhile Montreal spent money on their own tests. Rather than spend money on nothing, governments should do what we’ve been asking for over the last 10 years, pass a law banning old wood stoves. We think that fireplaces should not be regulated because they’re only used occasionally, as it’s impossible to heat a home with a fireplace. Since the ice storm there are lots more wood stoves out there, people were buying any old ones. There were lots of bad and dangerous wood stoves installed after that.”

Michelle Rivest of the Pure Air Association, a coalition founded in 1994 that claims eight groups of up to 600 members, also has reservations about what heating with wood is doing to our air.

“Burning wood for heat is very widespread in Quebec. People have been doing it forever but back then we couldn’t identify the causes of their asthma, heart problems and their sinus and lung problems. It’s a toxic irritant and a carcinogen. Even if your windows and doors are closed it still gets in your house and can irritate people who have asthma. In cities it’s a big problem because there’s a bigger concentration of residents, but in the countryside, wherever there’s a thermal inversion, the smoke makes a cover. Many Quebec villages are in valleys like Sept-Îles and Ste-Côme, where the smoke just accumulates and doesn’t blow away. The EPA-approved wood stoves are better than the traditional ones but they too emit a lot of fine particles. Some cities and towns have bylaws—particularly governing outdoor fires—but they’re generally not applied. Some might consider fire heating as romantic but if everybody associated their sinus and other health problems—if they were aware, really—I think they wouldn’t be seeing romance in wood fires. For example, a (non-EPA-standard) wood stove emits in just nine hours the equivalent of all the pollution emitted by a car driving 20,000 km. That’s a year of driving.”

Don Fugler, an Ottawa-based air quality expert from the Research Division of Canada Mortgage and Housing, comments on Quebeckers’ passion for the flame.

“In Canada there certainly are local problems with wood stoves. Our 1994 study showed that 15 per cent of Quebecers heat with wood stoves, well above the 10.4 per cent national average. If you’re using a newer EPA-approved wood stove it pollutes far less, but they’re still significant irritants for sensitive people. Our study on the effects of wood stoves on indoor air quality has found it to be quite neutral, although there’s a cancer link to almost any combustion product. Cigarettes, incense, candles, you can always find some carcinogenic particles in smoke. The main objection to wood smoke, particularly in urban areas, is that you can get a very high concentration of particulate. Studies show that communities where there’s lots of wood burning tend to put their occupants at some risk. There’s good reason to suggest that they should change to more efficient, less polluting appliances. A good EPA-approved stove can reduce smoke by 80 to 90 per cent.” :