Bay Area residents are being asked to avoid burning wood over the Thanksgiving holiday to keep air at a healthier level, officials with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said Tuesday.
Wood burning is allowed during the holiday weekend but discouraged because extensive burning could cause the air quality to become unhealthy, especially in inland valleys.
Air district officials are predicting moderately healthy air on Thanksgiving Day.
“We encourage residents to refrain from burning wood this holiday weekend to help keep air pollution low,” said Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the Air District. “Wood smoke creates unhealthy air inside and outside the home.”
Wood smoke contains small particles and carcinogenic substances that make the air unhealthy, causing concern for children, seniors and people with respiratory conditions.
Wood smoke is the Bay Area’s major source of pollution in the winter. One fireplace can pollute a whole neighborhood, air district officials said. Wood smoke has been tied to serious respiratory illnesses and a higher risk for heart attacks.
More than 90 percent of premature deaths from pollution are related to breathing fine particulates, according to the air district.
As expected.
I will be having my Bourbon in front of my wood burning firepit every night. Happy Thanks Giving !
MMMmmmmmmm
Three fingers Neat !
Sometimes I spread my fingers apart.
😉
S, I like the high octane stuff, got be over 100
@THE WIZARD…..Pulled out my old 70s glass “appetite enhancer” pipe from the back of the closet for the holiday season…like the old Brylcreem hair pomade commercial…”A little dab will do ya”.
@nytemuvr
You still have one from the ’70s? Wow! Nice collector’s item. I could never keep one that long without breaking it. 🙂
@CYN….My Mom used mine as a small flower vase/knicknack for a few years until someone told her what it really was. She sure is missed this time of year especially.
Nytemuvr, that’s pretty funny. And I know what you mean about your mom being missed.
Now’s as good a time as any to break out the Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style @ 115 proof. Makes a great Old Fashioned. 😉
Got to drink that neat. Let your stomach and liver enjoy.
Oh joy, time to ruin the holidays!
Strange that on two holidays per year Bay Area Air Quality Management District become concerned about fire, yet can’t recall them being a vocal and a proactive agency actively lobbying to reduce number of dead fallen and standing trees which became massive fuel load for CA wild land fires each year, impacting bay area air quality.
.
Fires which negated many times over any gains in air quality and health of Californians many years in a row. An can’t recall them taking newsom to task for mismanagement of wild lands.fuel load.
.
“Gavin Newsom’s first full day in office, Jan. 8, 2019…”
” “Everybody has had enough,” the governor said, announcing he’d signed a sweeping executive order overhauling the state’s approach to wildfire prevention. Climate change was sparking fires more frequent, ferocious and far-reaching than ever before, Newsom said, and confronting them would have to become a year-round effort.
The state’s response, Newsom added, “fundamentally has to change.”
But two-and-a-half years later, as California approaches what could be the worst wildfire season on record, it does so with little evidence of the year-round attention Newsom promised.”
LAist https://tinyurl.com/jwfxakcv
.
“California’s 2020 wildfire season thwarted the state’s fight against climate change, spewing enough carbon dioxide into the air to equal the emissions of millions of passenger vehicles driving over the course of a year.
Those roughly 9,600 fires burned nearly 4.2 million acres, killed 31 people, and emitted an estimated 112 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to a California Air Resources Board report released Dec. 31. The number is akin to the greenhouse gas emissions of 24.2 million passenger cars driving in a single year”
bloomberg https://tinyurl.com/46hyarr4
.
Is estimated there are, going into 2021 fire season 147 million dead trees just in Sierra Nevada mountains. Beginning of April 2021 roughly 90,000 hazardous trees still needed to be removed just from area of 2018 CAMP / Paradise Fire.
We’ll, there’s no cure for stupid, hence California voters re-elected one of their own!!!
We’ll be burning while snuggled up watching the football game and hanging out with family drinking some good Cabernet.
the Applewood is at the ready…………….
@S
…..and so is my almond. 🙂
WooHoo…. I hope that almond is for smokin’ ? A nice choice for the bird.
Since I’m making my famous Apple Bourbon Brine for the event, sticking with applewood, cause I figure: Why not?????
@S
No, the almond is for the fireplace, the turkey will be roasted. Have never smoked a turkey before but when I do, I’m coming to you for advice and instructions.
Just wear your left over masks.
A friend of mine has neighbors on both sides and back that have fires burning all the time. The problem is the smoke goes right into the roof attic vents and then thru the walls. Is there some type of attic fan to clear the smoke out?
“More than 90 percent of premature deaths from pollution are related to breathing fine particulates, according to the air district.” Address geoengineering and get back to us.
@TPC….Be aware…..watch out for the black jets and their chemtrails. Don’t stare at them for too long, they will erase your short-term memory with laser beams.
.
Go pound sand, BAAQMD.
.
Thanks BAAQMD, I will be doing the exact opposite and having a fire just because you think you can tell me how to live. Doing the opposite of what you recommend gives me even more warmth inside than my roaring fire 🙂
So I will be burning all weekend long. Almond is a relatively hot wood with minimal particulates.
Now, question, if smoke particulates are getting in your house, aren’t you doing it wrong?
They can pay my PG&E bill then. We will be burning. Free wood, free heat.
Went outside at about 5:30 last night…. Somebody had a wood fire goin’…
Delightful !
Always enjoyed the smell of wood coming home at night dropping into the valley after a O.T.
Predicting a deficit for next year, here is one board that could be disbanded. As comments prior to mine have stated, always around holiday time. I am uttering something to BAAQM under my breath that would not be permitted to be printed/displayed on this board. Forget the uttering, just out and out saying it aloud.
Yes stop the burning of wood. No need to. Not like we live in the snowy midwest.
You are probably part of the crowd that thinks the electricity used to charge their electric car batteries just magically appears when in reality it is generated using natural gas.
Something tells me the outrage over the discouragement of wood burning has more to do with people being wanting to be defiant.
Congrats, you all get gold stars now.
Me Fairley
Not defiant … so let me provide you alternatives.
Could it also be that people like the smell, ambiance or the visual aesthetics of a crackling fire in their fireplace? Could it be that people are getting tired of being told what to do by, what they consider to be, an overbearing dictatorship? Could it be that no matter what we do, it will have a negative impact on something/someone, and some of us don’t want to be responsible for EVERYONE? Sorry, not sorry, but I am personally tired of trying to be made responsible for everyone’s issue. Sometimes people need to take accountability for their own ailments/issues. Sorry folks have asthma in Contra Costa County, but because they do … I can’t have a fire burning in my fireplace? I am burning now and will be through the weekend while I relax with family and friends
According to St. Biden and the Right Honorable Gentleman Mr. Newsom they want to phase out Gas, oil, and wood Heating/Driving/Electricity Generation. Where does that leave us in winter when the sun does not generate much electricity and wind does not blow much either? I Know! OUT IN THE COLD!!!
What a joke. Since May Bay Point, downtown Pittsburg have been suffering with a toxic smell in the air. Have they done anything to address this and all the complaints? No! Only communist insist on telling everyone how to live while leaving them no options and doing exactly as they have told you not too.
The BAAQMD can put there burning logs where the sun does not shine.
I know…Their…spellcheck. My first post said the same thing but used different words that were not to nice.