Posted Friday, December 19th 2014 @ 5pm
(KFYI News) – The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the Maricopa County Air Quality Department have launched a “Don’t Burn on No-Burn Days” publicity campaign to help people with chronic breathing problems to breathe a little easier.
The program was first conducted last year with positive results. A survey showed 85% of people surveyed on no-burn days were aware that burning was prohibited, and 64% of those surveyed said they changed their behavior as a result of the no-burn designation.
The valley’s pollution is worse in the winter than any other time of year, as frequent air inversions, a product of high pressure, trap pollutants close to the ground. You can see it from higher elevations; locals call it the “brown cloud”.
And yes, again this winter, no-burn days will be declared several times including on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day because those are days when a lot of people tend to use their fireplaces. Eric Massey, ADEQ’s Air Quality director, says it’s not an attempt to be a grinch. Rather, he said, wood burning deposits a lot of soot in the air, which gets into the lungs of people with breathing problems and makes their life miserable.
While some people point to cars, trucks, airplanes, and construction as contributors to the valley’s pollution problem, Massey says smoke does the most damage, according to analyses of the county’s air. “Those chemical fingerprints point to wood smoke being the preponderance of what’s collected,” he said.
In addition, wood burning on the four days outlined above have a significant effect on pollutants in the air: “Last year we had one day in particular that was so bad, it counted as almost two weeks’ worth of bad air quality, for just a single day’s exposure.”
Massey says the county’s overall air quality is in compliance with EPA standards, but just barely, and any deterioration of our overall air quality – such as a higher number of days when we’re out of compliance – could lead to more regulations, which would impact nearly every resident.
Dr. David Sanderson, a retired pulmonologist from Mayo Clinic, says people who burn wood in violation of no-burn days are just hurting their neighbors: “In Maricopa County alone, we have over 85,000 children with asthma. We have over 276,000 adults who also have asthma,” in addition to many thousands more who suffer from other breathing issues such as emphysema and COPD.
Burning wood – in a fireplace, chimney, or outdoor fire pit – on a no-burn day can result in fines.