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Environment and Human Health, Inc. asks the Connecticut Legislature to help the many people in the state who are being made sick from breathing their neighbor's wood smoke on a continuous basis.EHHI Press Release
Hartford, Connecticut, March 6, 2009 --Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI), a non-profit organization comprised of nine members who are physicians and public health professionals, is asking the Conn. Legislature to add the word "wood smoke" to the Connecticut Public Health Nuisance Code. EHHI has been receiving an ever-growing number of tragic phone calls from families who are being made sick from wood smoke that is coming into their homes on a continuous basis from neighbor's wood smoke emissions. Many of these people seek medical treatment and are given inhalers or cortisone, and when they get bronchitis and pneumonia from the wood smoke, they are put on antibiotics. As well, many of them end up in emergency rooms. These families come to EHHI only after they have exhausted all of Connecticut's governmental and legal avenues. Because there are not sufficient laws in Connecticut to protect these people, they have only two options - to continue to be sick or to move. In this economy it is almost impossible to move. EHHI has worked over the past two years trying to understand how best to help the people being made sick by their neighbor's wood smoke without harming the rights of all those who enjoy wood burning and are not hurting anyone. The answer is to help the sick people in a case-by-case way, with local health departments assessing the situation and then having the authority to help these families under the Public Health Nuisance Code. Why is wood smoke a problem when it enters someone's home on a continuous basis? Wood smoke contains many of the the same chemicals as cigarette smoke. It is both an irritant and a carcinogen. It interferes with the normal lung development in infants and children. The people who are exposed to their neighbor's wood smoke suffer sore eyes and throats, and when the exposure continues, many get respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Wood smoke particles are so small that if the smoke is very close to a house the doors and windows cannot keep it out. Even the new energy-efficient weather tight homes cannot prevent wood smoke from entering homes. EHHI Public Health Toxicologist David Brown, Sc.D., says, "The wood smoke particles are so small that they go deep into the lungs and deliver the chemicals that adhere to them into the human body. Recent studies show that exposures to wood smoke can lead to increased risks for heart attacks and damaged lungs, and can cause respiratory illnesses. Recent studies show that cancers increase and death rates are higher in people exposed to wood smoke." "Many people in our district have called for help," says Leslie Balch, MPH, RN, director of the Quinnipiack Valley Health District. "Many are being made sick by wood smoke emissions and therefore local health directors need the right tools to help them. The word 'wood smoke' needs to be included in the Conn. Public Health Code so that we can better help these people who are looking to us for assistance." President of EHHI Nancy Alderman says, "The health code was written in the 19th and early 20th century and therefore addresses many outdated issues. As presently written, the Nuisance Code protects people from "Bone Burning" emissions and from "Tallow Making" emissions but it does not protect them from the emissions of wood smoke that comes into their homes on a continuous basis and makes them sick. Connecticut needs to amend the Public Health Nuisance Code to include the word 'wood smoke' if it is to protect Connecticut citizens who are sick," concluded Alderman." |
Wood Smoke
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