We Need More Regulation!
This is terrible. Did you know that it's legal in Oregon to burn stuff in your wood stove or fireplace? And it's a huge health hazard! The sub-story is that folks might burn garbage in there, but of course, most folks don't. So the main story is all about how burning stuff is bad. And burning wood is particularly bad. Interestingly, this makes a fine argument in favor of resuming selective harvest on our timberlands…oh, wait. That's bad too.
Wood smoke contains hundreds of toxic compounds including benzene and tars similar to those in cigarette smoke. The particles are so fine, smaller than 2.5 microns, they easily pass through human nasal filters and imbed themselves in peoples' lungs. (A micron is 300 times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.)
Many of the toxics pose known risks for causing cancer in humans.
As atmospheric scientist(okay, she's not) Diane Barton of Tigard notes, she frequent (sic)smells the telltale odors of trash burning as she walks her neighborhood. She says she's tired of coming home with her clothes and her hair "smelling like a campfire."
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_020507_env_sweeps_toxic_wood_smoke_.5511a675.html
That's really an excellent argument for Diane to move into one of the condos in the SoWhat or Pearl districts. They're built for people like her.
May get darn cold when the power goes out in an ice storm, but hey - at least she's not breathing in the kinds of microsopic and toxic wood smoke particles that people inhaled for thousands of years.
On February 7, 2007 at 8:26 am, Playin' Possum wrote:
There you go again… Twisting the story… There are so many errors in your analysis and the linked story they should be burned - in a nice clean woodstove…
The point of the article is it isn’t illegal to burn garbage in a woodstove in Oregon and therefore there is no recourse when idiots do so - and my bet is they do. Even here in Washington, where it is specifically banned, people do - I smell it all the time. Even in my very sparsely populated area it’s an issue. People burn treated paper, plastic, treated wood - even creosoted wood. Worse yet, they use paper and plastic for kindling.
If you want to be an idiot, great! Just keep it to yourself… Maybe the idiots could duct their chimneys back into their houses…
Wood smoke from fresh wood contains a plethora of poisons if the wood is "smoked" cigarette-style. But a stove isn’t a cigarette and seasoned wood is fundamentally different from green. At full tilt, a top-notch wood stove manages to oxidize almost everything in seasoned wood. Benzene doesn’t stand a chance of escaping, and tars by definition are the result of improper burning.
However treated woods, paper and plastics - often treated with fire retardants - require the really hot burn a fully oxidizing atmosphere provides or they do in fact produce really dangerous stuff - worse than any normal wood. At it’s best, a top-notch wood stove running flat out approaches those conditions but a fireplace doesn’t even come close.
The results are far worse than the wood "we" have been burning for thousands of years… As if that is an argument… Does it occur to you that wood smoke is part of the reason people used to have a far shorter life expectancy?
And I wonder: Why object to regulations against burning garbage? I think the answer is obvious… You don’t like being told what to do. You never grew up enough to admit your own fallibility and the fallible, uncaring, even malicious attitudes of the other monkeys you live among…
Does it occur to you that you are the worst enemy your own opinions ever had?
I must say as an evolutionist it’s validating… I expect the monkey man to live down to the lowest possible standard…
So go ahead and live down! Enjoy those poisons! Stand downwind of that garbage fire and have a ciggy! Your Darwin award is waiting for you…
But keep your shit out of my air.
On February 7, 2007 at 5:03 pm, MaxRedline wrote:
Did you even bother to read the first paragraph? Of course not. Your self-chosen role is to attempt to demonstrate your vast superiority by twisting the story. At least you’re consistent in your failure.
Golly, PP - most people I know with fireplaces and who go camping and who build campfires seem to have fine - and lengthy - lives. Has it ever occurred to the stunted thing that apparently passes for a brain in your case that the reason we now have longer and healthier lives has nothing to do with toxic wood-smoke, but everything to do with sewerage systems, potable water, and medical advances? Of course it hasn’t - because you’re too busy behaving like the little troll you are. Clearly, your superior intellect can’t be bothered with trivial realities. It’s clear that you have little to share in the blogosphere other than your utter contempt for anybody who questions the nanny state.
But keep your shit out of my air.
Whch is why this will be my final reply to your moronic, trolling rantings. You appear to have the intelligence of a brick, and you can’t even write without the help of expletives. Typical of the left. When all else fails, cuss. Yeah. That’ll show ‘em! Bye-by, PP.