A wood-burning stove in your home may be a great source of heat during the cold winter, but new data shows that invisible particles produced by burning wood may cause cancer and heart disease, the Telegraph reported.
Wood-burning stoves are becoming more popular because of the rising price of oil, gas and electricity prices. But researchers at Copenhagen University in Denmark said that breathing in air around the stoves is the equivalent to inhaling car exhaust—with the wood particles being small enough to breathe into the deepest parts of the lungs.
"The particles that come from wood smoke can certainly cause fatal heart or lung disease. In human cells that were exposed to the particles, substantial DNA damage and mutation took place. It was comparable to the effects of particles given off by traffic," said professor Steffen Loft, of the Department of Public Health at Copenhagen University.
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2 comments:
Well now, if that study is correct there should have been an epidemic of cancer previous to the 20th century when other fuels became the norm for heating homes around the world. I would really like to see the data for the past several thousand years showing that the cancers caused by burning wood have now declined to back up their study.
Three times a day I fill that stove, and inhale ash dust. I go to bonfires, have campfires on vacation, and toast all with a toddy!
Where is the comparison of inhaling fuel oil smoke, natural or propane gas smoke, and coal dust smoke?
We all inhale all those smoke particulates, and methinks no one smoke is better for you than the other.
The object of the game here, folks, is to get us all on the "grid" so those of us who only spend $450.00 per heating season on wood (or 200 if we cut & split our own) will become a bigger part of the tax base!
I like my freedom, thank you!
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