Wood fires banned on New Year’s Day
Air quality officials have declared a Spare the Air alert, banning the use of fireplaces, wood stoves
Bay Area revelers will have to huddle around the space heater on New Year’s Day, because air quality officials have declared yet another Spare the Air alert, banning the use of fireplaces, wood stoves, fire pits or other wood-burning devices.
It is the second holiday to be hit with a fire-burning ban — and the 17th day of the season. Christmas Day also received a Spare the Air warning. Bah humbug.
Last winter, the air was much cleaner, with seven badly polluted days during the period from November 2016 through February 2017. In the same period of 2015-2016, there was only one day.
The Bay Area’s air is staying dirty because of our parched December weather, said Aaron Richardson of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. This has caused unhealthy levels of haze-forming soot.
A high-pressure zone off the West Coast is deflecting storms and creating stagnant conditions, trapping pollution close to the ground.
“We haven’t had much rain this winter,” said Richardson. “When you get storms, it flushes out and cleans the air.”
Conditions may improve on Tuesday and Wednesday, because an incoming “atmospheric river” is expected to deliver rain and fresh air to the region, he said.
In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area is the single largest source of air pollution, contributing about 40 percent of the harmful “fine particulate” pollution in the air, according to the air quality district. Vehicles are responsible for about 21 percent of pollution.
Exposure to wood smoke, like cigarette smoke, has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses and even increased risk of heart disease, asthma and cancer. Fine particles, a fraction of the width of a human hair, are among the most worrisome air pollutants to health experts because they lodge deep in the lungs.
Air quality also was bad during California’s historic drought, with 23 Spare the Air days in the November-throughFebruary period of 2014-2015 and a record-breaking 30 days in the same period of 20132014.
“We’re seeing an uptick again because of the dry and still air,” said Richardson.
People can find out when a Spare the Air alert is in effect by visiting www.sparetheair. org or www.baaqmd.gov, by calling (877) 4-NO-BURN, signing up for text alerts by texting “START” to 817-57, signing up for phone alerts at (800) 430-1515, or via Spare the Air iPhone and Android apps.