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If you've ever lived next door to someone who's had an high BTU wood burning stove you'll know why they have restrictions, I would never purchase property where
by nesky 7y ago
If you've ever lived next door to someone who's had an high BTU wood burning stove you'll know why they have restrictions, I would never purchase property where a neighbor or someone close to the residence had one. Green energy source or not they're not something you want to live near unless you never open your windows or spend time outside, they stink.
- rayiner 7y agoI live next to someone who uses a wood stove. It smells nice.
- pizza 7y agoSome toxic air pollutants do smell quite nice https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health
- mabbo 7y agoIt smells nice, but that nice smelling smoke isn't good for you. Your neighbor has a lovely fire, while doing health damage to you and your family.
- rayiner 7y agoThere’s so many things that cause “health damage” I just don’t care. People used to use wood stoves just fine. How bad could it be.
- lmm 7y agoPeople used to smoke everywhere too. IIRC the damage is about the same.
- DavidAdams 7y agohttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-globally-since-1770 https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-globally-...
- rayiner 7y agoThe increase is mostly due to childhood mortality. I'm pretty sure 5 year olds weren't dying of lung cancer back in the day. Life expectancy once you're middle-aged has gone up quite modestly: https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Life-expectancy-by-age-in-the-UK-1700-to-2013-768x538.png https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Life-e.... For someone my age (late 30s), life expectancy has only gone up by about 13 years since 1850.
- tzs 7y ago> People used to use wood stoves just fine. Citation needed for the "just fine" claim. Heating options were a lot more limited in the past for many people. If your choice is between freezing to death soon or making it through the winter but doing long term serious damage to your health, you'll pick the later, but it has hard to call that "just fine".
- rayiner 7y agoWhat is "serious damage to your health" in this context?
- greenyoda 7y agoFrom the EPA: > Health effects of wood smoke > The biggest health threat from smoke is from fine particles, also called fine particulate matter or PM2.5. These microscopic particles can get into your eyes and respiratory system, where they may cause burning eyes, runny nose, and illnesses, such as bronchitis. > Fine particles can make asthma symptoms worse and trigger asthma attacks. Fine particles can also trigger heart attacks, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, and heart failure, especially in people who are already at risk for these conditions. https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health#health https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health#heal...
- ensignro2340 7y agoC0nc0rdance has a pretty good video about this: https://youtu.be/dDA0skyptuo https://youtu.be/dDA0skyptuo I never really thought about the possible harm, but the above video is great. It’s originally from a Sam Harris essay.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoPeople used to have relatively shorter lifespans. The planet used to have much fewer people. Cities were less dense. Etc...
- makomk 7y agoThe problem isn't just the smell. When lots of people install wood-burning stoves in a dense urban area, it causes a huge increase in air pollution with all the health issues inevitably that come with that.
- Glyptodon 7y agoMany people don't use wood burning stoves properly. If you condition and burn the wood correctly there's very little smell or smoke. But lots of people just toss anything in and don't even control the burn which leads to more byproducts.