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Healthier Home, Cleaner Environment
Do you smell smoke in your home?
Shut down the wood stove, open a window, check that the flue is open, carefully check the venting (chimney) system, and call a professional wood stove installer or chimney sweep.
The right wood means a cleaner neighborhood.
By burning clean, dry, well-seasoned hardwoods (such as oak or maple), your wood stove will produce less smoke (less pollution).
An added advantage is that hardwoods provide more heat energy than softer woods because hardwoods are denser and burn more slowly and evenly. Poplar and birch are also good firewood.
A properly installed, correctly used wood stove does not release smoke in your house. If you smell smoke, that means the health of everyone at home could be affected.
A properly installed, correctly used EPA certified wood stove releases significantly less pollution into the environment. A fire that is burning properly produces little or no smoke from the chimney. If you see a lot of smoke coming from a chimney, that's air pollution. It can affect the health of everyone in your neighborhood.
A Healthy Indoor Environment
Breathing smoke is not healthy. Wood smoke contains a mixture of gases and fine particles that can cause burning eyes, runny nose, and bronchitis. Fine particles can aggravate heart or respiratory problems, such as asthma, in people of all ages. Even limited exposure to smoke can be harmful to human health particularly to the health of children, the elderly, and those with chronic conditions.
To protect your health and that of everyone who shares your home:
- Use a properly installed, vented EPA certified wood stove
- Have the wood stove cleaned and inspected annually
- Use safe, efficient wood burning practices
- Follow the additional precautions below:
Never burn household garbage or cardboard. Plastics and the colored ink on magazines, boxes, and wrappers produce harmful chemicals when burned.
Never burn coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood because it releases toxic chemicals when burned.
Never burn ocean driftwood, plywood, particle board, or any wood with glue on or in it. They all release toxic chemicals when burned.
Never burn wet, rotted, diseased, or moldy wood.
Only bring into your home the amount of wood needed for a day to reduce the chance of allergy-causing mold spores circulating indoors.
A Clean, Healthy Outdoor Environment
Wood smoke results from incomplete burning. When released outdoors it becomes air pollution. EPA certified wood stoves burn wood more completely; therefore, they emit 60% to 80% less pollution. In some parts of the United States during a typical wood heating season, wood smoke can account for about 80% of the air pollution in a residential area. Visit:
- AIRNow to see the air quality forecast for your area.
- state or local air pollution agency to find out whether there are restrictions on wood burning in your area.
- AIRNow Inversions to learn more about restrictions on wood burning during a temperature inversion.
Wood stove owners can help prevent pollution by following the practical recommendations for buying, installing, operating, and maintaining their wood stoves as described on this and preceding pages. If you see a lot of smoke from your neighbors' chimneys, urge them to visit this Web site.
As part of its Wood Stove Changeout Campaign, EPA is working with partners in several locations to provide attractive incentives for wood stove owners to switch to an EPA certified wood stove. EPA hopes to expand this program over the coming years.
The Chemical Composition of Wood Smoke
Wood smoke contains harmful chemical substances such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxin, and inhalable particulate matter (PM). Some of the VOCs are irritating, toxic, and/or cancer causing. One of the biggest human health threats from smoke, indoors or outdoors, comes from PM. Wood smoke PM is composed of wood tars, gases, soot, and ashes. Toxic air pollutants are a potentially important component of wood smoke. A group of air toxics known as polycyclic organic matter includes potential carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene.
Cleaner Alternatives to Wood
There are cleaner heating alternatives, such as stoves that use vented natural gas or propane, pellet stoves, and oil or gas furnaces. EPA provides information on the relative emissions from several heating alternatives.