Beware: Your Fireplace Or Wood Burning Stove May Be Harming Your Health

As the holidays near, and the air is cold, families gather around fireplaces and wood stoves oven, the warm comfort. Unfortunately, for many, especially those who suffer from asthma and allergies-the use of such heating devices can trigger health disasters to unexpected way.

Dr. Leonard Bielory, director of the Asthma and Allergy Research Center at the start-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, said emergency room visits from asthma attacks quadrupled since the fall of the first frost. "There are particles and toxic substances emitted by the burning of wood that, if inhaled, can cause shortness of breath or wheezing and potentially a life threatening asthma attack emergency may require that the health sector."

Wood Smoke Break Down

Wood smoke from fireplaces and wood stoves oven containing fine particles and gases, are a serious threat to health for you and your family. The smoke emitted from burning wood contains the following:

Fine particles: These particles are so small that several thousand of them were on time at the end of a sentence. You can reach the deepest recesses of the lungs and accelerate the hardening of the arteries, heart affected.

Nitrogen Dioxide: This odorless gas that can irritate your eyes, nose and throat and cause shortness of breath. For people with asthma, exposure to low NO2 can cause increased bronchial reactivity and young children more vulnerable to infections of the respiratory tract. Long-term exposure to high NO2 can cause chronic bronchitis.

Carbon monoxide: This odorless, colorless, poisonous gas interferes with the delivery of oxygen in the body and can cause headaches, dizziness and, at higher concentrations, death. People with heart and respiratory diseases may be more sensitive to lower levels of this gas.

Toxic compounds: These include compounds such as formaldehyde, benzene, chlorine and methyl methane (a wide range of compounds, have no color, taste or smell.) Some cause direct and negative impact on the health of penetrating deep into the lungs.

Carbon dioxide: The greenhouse gas contributes to global climate change.

The above particles in wood smoke are too small to be filtered by the nose and upper respiratory tract, so that they end up deep in your lungs. They can remain there for several months, causing structural damage and chemical changes in your body without you even realize.

Not only your household's health at risk

If you do not have a fireplace or wood stove at home and not feel just yet. You are still Heide, the risk of your neighbor fireplaces and wood stoves oven.

Because wood smoke contains such small particles, the smoke is not stopped by locked doors and windows, and seeps into the nearby neighbors' houses. In fact, during the winter months, wood smoke is not rising, and often depends closely on the ground, in yards, houses, schools and hospitals. Then, with valley locations and poor air circulation are most affected.

A recent study by the University of Washington in Seattle and an EPA study, in Boise, Idaho districts found that indoor levels of PM10 (particulate-01 from 06 major air pollutants for which there is a national air quality standard) of wood smoke in the apartment without wood stoves reaching an astonishing 50% to 70% of the level in the open air, when the burning of wood. Neighbors wood fires in May reluctantly be breathing smoky air, even if they are not wood burner.

A higher risk for lung cancer

According to Medical News Today, "Burning wood can be associated with lung cancer, even with people who do not smoke." Scientists from Mexico gathered blood samples from 62 patients with lung cancer, 9 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 9 control group. The patients with lung cancer, 23 were smokers (37.1%), 24 were exposed to wood smoke (38.7%), and 15 were not in a category (24.2%).

Results of the study show that 38.7% of patients with lung cancer were non-smokers who were exposed to continuous wood smoke over 10 years.

A few suggestions

Whether it is a nice romantic evening with a loved one, or the warm toes after playing in the snow, the chances are you will find yourself lighting a fireplace or wood stove in the winter. And you can go on and enjoy it. But before you do so, here are a few suggestions from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, you should follow:

Only with an EPA approved fireplace or wood stove.

Not allow the respiratory disease, such as asthma or allergies to be the fireplace or wood stove too long.

Make sure there is adequate ventilation to a possible smoke, which issued (window open a crack, if need be).

Avoid the use of a chemical accelerant, such as lighter fluid to ignite the fire.

Properly maintain your fireplace or wood stove.

Have your chimney cleaned annually to prevent vapors from backing into the house.

Be sure the room is revealed, and dust and vacuum the area thoroughly after it was used.

Not with a fireplace or wood stove as the only source of heat.

If you have a fireplace or wood stove, or live in an area where neighbors do, it is also very important that your house the surfaces such as furniture and floors clean on the microscopic level. The fine particles from the smoke settle, and then, while running, seats, etc., can kick back up into the air.

It is strongly recommended that you not use the typical tools such as cleaning rags, cotton swabs and sponges for cleaning, as they are unable to effectively eliminate the fine particles.

Perfect Clean equipment ultramicrofiber cleaning tools-like dust cloths, terry towels and more - are the ideal solution because they consist of fibers, the only 3 micrometer size (even smaller than many bacteria, so highly effective removal of fine particles.) They are strong To read about Perfect Clean items in the previous article.