Spare the Air
02-02-2007, 02:51 PM
From today's SF Chronicle
Bay Area air regulators consider ban on wood fires
Friday, February 2, 2007
(02-02) 12:01 PST San Francisco (AP) --
San Francisco Bay area air quality regulators are proposing a mandatory ban on wood fires in fireplaces and stoves when the air is bad.
Under the proposed rules, wood fires would be prohibited in the nine-county Bay Area on "Spare the Air" days — when air quality is expected to reach unhealthy levels.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board has asked its staff to draft rule options so it can hold hearings on a proposed ban this summer.
Southern California is weighing a similar ban, and one already is enforced in the San Joaquin Valley, where regulators say the rules have improved air quality.
The Bay Area air district issued voluntary no-burn advisory on 26 Spare the Air nights this winter, but many people lit fires those nights anyway, officials said.
On many nights this winter, Bay Area air quality failed to meet new federal health standards for tiny particles that can lodge deep in the lungs and trigger respiratory and heart problems.
"When your activity in the home is poisoning the air in your neighborhood for a long distance around, that's when the air district says, 'Enough is enough,'" said Mark Ross, a Martinez city councilman who chairs the air district board.
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Information from: Contra Costa Times
Bay Area air regulators consider ban on wood fires
Friday, February 2, 2007
(02-02) 12:01 PST San Francisco (AP) --
San Francisco Bay area air quality regulators are proposing a mandatory ban on wood fires in fireplaces and stoves when the air is bad.
Under the proposed rules, wood fires would be prohibited in the nine-county Bay Area on "Spare the Air" days — when air quality is expected to reach unhealthy levels.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board has asked its staff to draft rule options so it can hold hearings on a proposed ban this summer.
Southern California is weighing a similar ban, and one already is enforced in the San Joaquin Valley, where regulators say the rules have improved air quality.
The Bay Area air district issued voluntary no-burn advisory on 26 Spare the Air nights this winter, but many people lit fires those nights anyway, officials said.
On many nights this winter, Bay Area air quality failed to meet new federal health standards for tiny particles that can lodge deep in the lungs and trigger respiratory and heart problems.
"When your activity in the home is poisoning the air in your neighborhood for a long distance around, that's when the air district says, 'Enough is enough,'" said Mark Ross, a Martinez city councilman who chairs the air district board.
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Information from: Contra Costa Times