MYTHS
On burning wood
Cavemen lived healthily.
No. They didn't live very long, and scientists found evidence in the caveman that lung cancer existed.
You can't touch that, it's tradition!
There are different ways of keeping traditions alive and we have to know how to re-invent those that are harmful to people and the environment.
Don't go crazy, it's not a campfire that's going to make me sick.
False. Even short-term exposure to pollution can cause serious respiratory or cardiovascular problems.
In the middle of nature, the air quality can't be that bad.
Error. Smoke can get trapped on the ground due to various weather phenomena.
I have always heated with wood and I have never had any health problems.
There can be a first for everything! And maybe your neighbors who experience your smoke don't agree.
New pellet stoves produce clean energy.
If it burns, it pollutes! Less than a conventional wood stove but more than natural gas.
My new stove is certified 2.5 g/h so that's correct.
The tests are carried out under optimal laboratory conditions. Your emissions may be much higher in reality.
New stoves improve air quality.
There is no scientific data to show that lower emissions lead to improved outdoor air quality.
We are not going to start regulating everything!
TRUE. But is a wood-fired pizza, no matter how good, worth sending a neighborhood kid to the emergency room?
Gas oven bagels don't taste the same.
It's the recipe that makes the difference, not the baking method.
Commercial filters are quite effective.
Not really. Many businesses equipped with expensive filters fail to meet emission standards.
Inconvenienced people just have to move!
Easier said than done. And you can imagine the smog we would have if all the bakeries in Montreal started baking bread in a wood-fired oven like they used to!
Wood smoke is natural so it's good for your health.
Poisonous mushrooms, lead, mercury, radon, hemlock, asbestos, arsenic... There's nothing more natural than that. And yet...
Burning wood is carbon neutral.
Very wrong. The wood must go through an industrial dryer and be transported. A tree planted to replace the burnt tree will take decades to capture the carbon that has gone up in smoke.
Cigarette smoke is much worse.
There are certainly small technical differences but tell yourself all the same that if you heat with wood, you make the whole neighborhood smoke!
Industry, fossil gas and transport are the real culprits.
Despite being covered in mud in the media, these sectors have globally reduced their emissions in proportion of all emission sources.
"The world contains enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for everyone's greed."
- Gandhi