Trigger Warning: Community contains mostly bad environmental news (not by choice!). Community may also feature stories about animal agriculture and/or meat. Until tagging is available, please be aware and click accordingly.

🪲

Aussie Zone Rules.

Golden rule - be nice. If you wouldn’t say it in front of your ~~grandmother~~ favourite tree, don’t post it.
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. You are allowed to denigrate invasive plants or animals.
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here. Except invasive plants or animals.
No porn. Except photos of plants. Definitely not animals.
No Ads / Spamming. Except for photos or stories about plants and animals.
Nothing illegal in Australia. Like invasive plants or animals. Exotic microbes and invasive fungi also not welcome.
Make post titles descriptive with no swear words. Comments are a free for all using the above rules as a guide. Fuck invasive plants and animals.

🐝

/c/Aussie Environment acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Wood heater smoke estimated to kill up to 63 in ACT each year, prompting calls for national ban (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 6 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Okay, so let’s take a look at car emission related deaths if you want to ban something.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Petrol has been refined, wood smoke is unrefined and an improperly burning one, or something not efficient like a pot belly, really pump out the pollutants. My neighbour does green wood stack burns without a care in the world.

I wholeheartedly agree with you but in semi-urban/urban areas, this is low-hanging fruit for air pollution. Bit of a no-brainer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

isnt our diesel like the worst in the world though?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Yeah, but a lot of modern trucks burn off the particulates these days. They run heat through an accumulator for 5-10 mins or so, at least our tree truck did.

A poorly run fire is bad for PM2.5 which is the one that lodges in the lungs. It's hard to regulate. You can make a smoky modern efficient fireplace too. Even wood types. Difficult to regulate and if electricity is available, reverse cycle is the go.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

We should probably ban campfires too. And charcoal BBQs. Maybe we should ban smoked bacon too, just in case. /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The study published on Monday in the Medical Journal of Australia found there were a similar number of deaths attributed to domestic wood heaters in the ACT each year as they estimated died prematurely in the territory due to the extreme smoke from the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.

These tiny particles are small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs, and long-term exposure can exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma and it also leads to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and some types of cancer.

Fay Johnston from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research co-authored the study and said it showed policies to address wood heater use were urgently needed.

"Alarmingly, the estimated deaths and costs could in fact be underestimates, if you take into account the potential increased toxicity from PM 2.5 derived from domestic wood heater smoke," he said.

A 2021 government inquiry in Victoria found wood heating was a "significant contributor" to air pollution in built-up areas and made recommendations for reform.

It came after a report by ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Sophie Lewis found there was "no safe level of air pollution for human health" and the heaters had no place in the territory’s renewables future.

The original article contains 768 words, the summary contains 206 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!