Scientists from the University of Copenhagen have released new research on air pollution from wood stoves, furthering the world’s understanding about the health impacts of IAP. Their findings are the subject of Cheryl Katz’s latest feature for Environmental Health News.
“Recent research raises new concerns over the toxic substances borne aloft in wood smoke. Scientists say the tiny airborne specks of pollution carry carcinogenic chemicals deep into the lungs that trigger DNA damage and gene changes comparable to the hazards of cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes” writes Katz.
As the world focuses more attention on Indoor Air Pollution as a global problem, new research is establishing a far wider spectrum of IAP-related diseases than at first thought. In addition to the well established correlation between heart and lung diseases and IAP, new studies are claiming linkages between wood smoke and further illnesses, diseases and genetic changes.
“We found that wood smoke PM [particulate matter] has similar levels of toxicity and effects on DNA as that of vehicle exhaust particles,” said University of Copenhagen researcher Steffen Loft, whose team sampled the air from a Danish village where most homes were heated by wood-burning stoves, and compared it to air outside the smoke area.
Whilst the concept that harmful toxins are released when wood is burned are comparable to tobacco smoke or fumes from motor engines has been widely acknowledged for some time, the study by the University of Copenhagen is the first to characterize the minute particles and droplets of pollution released by wood fires.
It describes in detail the extremely small particles (PM 2.5 or 0.0001 inches) found in wood smoke that lodge deep in the lungs. These have the capacity to injure cells and damage DNA (causing potential carcinogenic changes), to interfere with the body’s ability to fight infection, and to cause oxidative stress linked to asthma and other lung diseases.
To support this, Katz cites a recent study by the University of British Columbia which determined that infants and toddlers living in areas with a lot of wood stoves and fireplaces are significantly more likely to get ear infections. The study analyzed visits to the doctor for 45,000 children aged two and under in Vancouver and surrounding areas, comparing it to data on wood smoke pollution levels during the same period. The study is the first to show a connection between ear infections and neighborhood wood stoves and fireplaces.
The correlation between ear infections and wood smoke exposure was as strong as the link with tobacco smoke. The study proposes that substances in the smoke suppress children’s ability to fight off common upper-respiratory tract viruses and bacteria which then migrate to the ear causing infections.
Read Cheryl Katz’s full article here.
