Jason,
On 12/28/2013 12:57 AM, Jason wrote:
PS. I have one aquaintance in New Zealand that is challenging the
science around respiratory disease and emissions from wood smoke. He
says the link is tenuous and the early bogus studies keep getting
repeated and used as justification to ban wood stoves.
Water is necessary for life and too much can drown you. Similarly with
some things, a little can be of benefit. I recall a study of
woodcutters that showed they had increased resistance to colds, and
this was attributed to intermittent exposure to wood smoke. On the
other hand, the WHO says that 1.6 million people die every year from
exposure to indoor air pollution, i.e. also (for the most part) wood
smoke. (Coal smoke is far more deadly.) The epidemiology is pretty
well established.
The term of art is hormesis, for which wikipedia offers the definition:
Hormesis is the generally favorable biological response to low
exposures to toxins and other stressors. A pollutant or toxin
showing hormesis thus has the opposite effect in small doses as in
large doses. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis
As far as the most common contributors to air pollution, it may end up
that airborne particulate matter of a certain size range, particularly
where the makeup of the particles includes irritants leading to
inflammation, will be seen to be most at fault for negative impacts on
health. Not wood smoke, exactly, in other words, but some things found
in wood smoke, may well be identified as the key bad actors. That
would be my current best guess, where I am solidly grounded in nearly
perfect ignorance.
It may be hard to get around the better safe than sorry approach that
many might be inclined to take. The future promises to have more
regulation, from almost any point of view.
d.
--
David William House
"The Complete Biogas Handbook" |www.completebiogas.com |
/Vahid Biogas/ , an alternative energy consultancy |www.vahidbiogas.com
|
|
"Make no search for water. But find thirst,
And water from the very ground will burst."
(Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in /Delight of Hearts/ , p. 77)
http://bahai.us/
|
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