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Blowing smoke?
It was the fireplace that sold Rob and Vonda Streicher on buying their Cincinnati home. During cold winter months, sitting around a blazing fire is one of the luxuries they enjoy. Neighbors Jack and Kate Earley, however, claim that the smoke emanating from the wood-burning fireplace is making them sick and want the Streichers to stop using it.
The Earleys have already contacted the county environmental services office, which issued a warning to the Streichers claiming “citizens’ complaints regarding excessive smoke and odors,” and warning of “enforcement” and “civil penalties.” The Streichers aren’t willing to give up their rights so easily, however, and continue to use their fireplace while the Earleys seal themselves into their home with sheets of plastic.
The one thing both neighbors agree on is that this feud will soon spread from their block in Loveland to Columbus or Washington, where activists will push for bans on wood-burning.
The unanswered question: Is there a real health concern, or are they just blowing smoke?
back to top27 Comments to “Blowing smoke?”
I’m assuming the one family has put a catalytic converter, or whatever it is that diminishes the smoke, on their chimney? We’re fighting the same fight here in Sonoma County with our liberal neighbors resisting all attempts to become spies for the nanny state. [No sarcasm]
I’m sympathetic to those who have trouble with wood smoke, but that’s what keeps me warm in the winter (a wood stove using wood we buy at a charity auction for an exhorbitant price every year), so I’m loathe to give it up.
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Thank goodness the Earleys weren’t born just a few decades ago when every home in America had wood, or even worse coal, burning stoves and fireplaces. These whining people are whack job woosies. The folks using their fireplace are not doing anything wrong or breaking any laws. If Cleveland wants to ban all fireplace fires so be it. In Phoenix we can only use ours on certain winter days when the air quality is good enough to allow it. But fireplace use is not banned totally.
Let’s not forget that the air quality of all American cities is nearly 20 times better today than it was when everyone used coal or wood to cook and heat their homes. It is also much better today than in the early 70’s when cars used leaded gas and had no pollution controls.
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“The unanswered question: Is there a real health concern, or are they just blowing smoke?”
Hm. Sounds like a question a journalist might look into {:~)
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If they have a real health problem, then this is a difficult issue. As one who loves a wood-burning fireplace (and laments not having one at the moment), I would be reluctant to give up use of one unless I was actually killing my neighbors by doing so.
If they don’t have a real health problem but are just trying to cause trouble, they can pound sand.
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Reading the article, it does sound like the Earley’s have environmental allergies of some kind. I don’t know anyone personally with this kind of affliction, but I am sure it’s a tough row to hoe.
Yet the case was not clearly made that their problems all relate to wood smoke (and not unintended consequences of the rarified air they’re breathing in their bubble house, for instance). Nor that getting the neighbors to quit with the fireplace would end their exposure to wood smoke anyway, since airborne irritants in trace amounts can blow in from many miles away.
As for the local government’s vague threats, the jurisdiction is probably just trying to demonstrate that it “did something” in response to the complaint. Without a clearly-written ordinance banning the use of all wood-burning fireplaces or stoves (for which the jurisdiction would take all kinds of, um, heat from its citizens) I don’t see how they can prevent the Streicher’s from enjoying a nice fire.
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As for the claims by environmental activists that wood smoke is bad news, we’re really shortening our list of sustainable, eco-friendly energy sources.
According to my notes:
petroleum: bad
coal: bad
nuclear: bad
ethanol: OK, except for all the diesel fuel required to grow the corn.
wood: bad
water: good, but doesn’t burn very well.
solar panels: GOOD GOOD GOOD! But require some of the above to produce them.
wind: same as solar panels.
The only eco-friendly fuel that’s left is transcendental meditation. If we would all just concentrate our minds on energy, I’m sure we’d have more than enough.
Of course, too much could lead to global warming …
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Unless their chimney is right next door to the neighbor’s open window, I have a hard time understanding how the concentration of smoke could be enough to cause them any respiratory distress.
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I have both allergies and asthma. Cigarette smoke can set off a violent coughing attack. Leaves burning (with accompanying ground-level smoke) can have me using my inhaler almost constantly. I do however have a wood-burning fireplace that has never given me grief. The difference? The smoke goes up and out and then dissipates. I have never noticed it in the house but also I have never noticed from outside the house when, for example, my husband gets home before me and already has a roaring fire going. I think that the Earleys are just activists. They may have medical problems but the burden of proving that the problems are caused by the neighbors’ fireplace should rest on them.
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Assuming the fireplace family is using traditional wood chopped from a tree without odd chemicals sprayed on it (to make it burn better or whatever), the complaining family may just have to get over it, install a better filtering system on the HVAC system, or whatever.
Cigarette smoke bothers me; I don’t patronize places that allow it. I would think keeping the windows closed would be comparable. The burden should be on the second family to prove the problems stem from (and only from) the fireplace. Even then, so what? Currently, there are no regs (to my knowledge) preventing fireplace use.
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Cameron: ding ding ding! Why can’t the Earleys just get a microfilter? They advertise the dadgum things on TV all the time, and they’re not ridiculously expensive.
I certainly sympathize if it’s causing them real medical issues, but trying to get the gov’t to solve the problem causes more problems than it solves.
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Wood heat is our only source of heat. Depending on temp, humidity, air pressure, whatever, there are times when the smoke just seems to climb down the outside of the house and settle in an area. That could well be annoying to a neighbor. If we had one.
RR,
Speaking as a resident of a hydroelectric state, there is quite a noise about getting rid of the dams so the wild salmon can make their trek. I guess even “clean” energy has its complainers. My personal belief is wind and sun would be the way to go if it were affordable as they are always here.
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MMacMurray would know better than I, but I think Maine is considering or has legislation regarding the filters on wood stoves (as RobHays suggested).
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water: good, but doesn’t burn very well.
RR, I had to laugh at that one. Of course, you don’t burn water, you use it at plants like this one, that’ I’ve toured many a time since my childhood.
Mumsee, thanks for pointing out that smoke can often sink as well as rise depending on weather conditions. I love our WBFP, and enjoy the wood smoke smell. However, I can and do often smell it when I pull in the driveway if there is a fire going.
If my neighbor, who I know has multiple health problems, were to complain, I of course would curtail my use of the fireplace, or find some way to mitigate the harm and/or annoyance it might cause. That’s a basic responsibility of being a good neighbor, IMHO.
It shouldn’t get to the point where the so-called “nanny-state” of local government has to step in. If it does, I suspect there might be more to the story. (I haven’t read enough on the particular case to know whether there is or not.)
We don’t live in a vacuum, and our actions for good or bad do affect our neighbors, so we can’t all just “do as we please.” Sadly, for some people, it takes being reminded by the government that this is so. That’s one of the reasons we have governments and laws, after all.
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NJLawyer,
My original comment (to which RobHays responded) involved the second family adding a filter to their HVAC system, not the first family adding one to the fireplace. Why should the burden be on the first family? If the first family wants to, fine, but the onus shouldn’t be on them.
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As I live in a city where burning is restricted, or not, according to air quality measurements and regularly ignored by those prehistoric types who know better than everyone else what should be done, I personally find the smoke obnoxious. Being outside in the crisp, clear winter air is great unless you must breath what smells like burning underwear coming from some stove or fireplace—only slightly more disgusting than coal smoke, which we get also. Our closest “burners” are maybe 100 yards from our house, but my clothes still reek as if I’d spent the weekend on a Boy Scout campout when I come back indoors. To me, that is a problem and I don’t mind the smell of a good campfire.
What I can’t understand is why would anyone want to put up with the dirt, work and cold drafts that a stove or fireplace creates in a home—even if it’s supplied with outside air to burn. I have a friend that’s a confirmed burner of mostly elm and whatever else he has in the way of trees in his large yard. He has a high efficiency stove as well as an antique heat/air syphon, which he lights up only on the coldest days to supplement the stove, and whose house reeks like it has recently been on fire, even in the summer. He’s always messing with the stove to get the draft right so it burns without going out or backing up into the house and his wife regularly complains about cold rooms and the way she needs to dress just so he can “save” a few bucks on his utility bill. If he properly valued his time spent and work done to cut/split/dry the “free” wood he’d discover he’s actually losing money.
A home properly insulated with energy efficient windows/doors/walls, using a newer high efficiency gas furnace, has a one time expense to get it that way and years of free time to enjoy something else. And my wife has discovered that her cleaning time/effort is greatly reduced as well since outside stays outside.
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Cameron:
“My original comment (to which RobHays responded) involved the second family adding a filter to their HVAC system, not the first family adding one to the fireplace. Why should the burden be on the first family? If the first family wants to, fine, but the onus shouldn’t be on them.”
Because, if you discharge something into the water, air, or dump it on the land, you are responsible for putting it there and for it’s effects.
I once heard an anecdote that the best way to get companies and cities to clean up discharges before putting it into a river is to require that their intakes be downstream of their discharges.
Their chimney is “upstream”, and everyone else’s air is downstream, unless you can find a way to redirect their chimney’s smoke into their own house’s windows, AC system, etc. Then they’d have plenty of incentive, and realize why cleaning up a discharge stream is the responsibility of the discharger, not the rest of the world “downstream” from them.
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RonD,
Perhaps I can help you with the answer to your question, though if I lived in a city, I doubt I would burn for heat (I have and I didn’t).
For me there are several reasons I prefer wood heat. First, it is the warmest and I can get warm with it. Second, I firmly believe that by participating in our lives we have more appreciation. Going out to get firewood, splitting it, stacking it, carting it into the house, training the kids with the accompanying chores, all make us more aware of what goes into heating a home than simply adjusting a thermostat. Third, I like cool bedrooms and I love the smell of woodsmoke. Fourth, when the kids come home, third daughter is always delighted when she sees something on the stove cooking or next to it rising and exclaims in her joyful voice, “that is how they did it in the olden days!” A woodstove brings me pleasure but if it bothered my neighbors, I would stop. I don’t mind the mess at all.
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ChristianLeftist,
Because, if you discharge something into the water, air, or dump it on the land, you are responsible for putting it there and for it’s effects.
Do you drive a car? Ever? The chemicals there would be far more toxic than burning wood, for crying out loud!
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The Earleys are probably just late (nice twist on words) on their mortgage payments and their house is going into foreclosure. They need a lawsuit that nets them a quick settlement. Wait till their neighbor finds out they are also allergic to grass clippings in the summer too
As an architect and contractor, I have designed many homes in my spare time that use passive solar design, super insulation, recycled materials and other techniques like common walls between families in multi family projects to reduce the need for heating and cooling. But I have only built one and that was 30 years ago.
In general, these homes and other structures cost more to build using normal materials but, this cost can easily be offset by building smaller and making do with less square footage and height, to begin with. Why a family of 4 needs 3,000 to 4,000 SF is beyond me. Not really, I know it is a status, power, thing and read my clients very well. Still…. we all are to blame for poor energy efficient design and construction one way or another.
Multi family homes are by far the most energy efficient to build but most folks want to be as far from their neighbors as possible. I think it is rather dumb to want to live apart. In the old days families of grandparents, parents, children and their children all lived together in one structure. Eco friendly communal living of the 60’s and 70’s was based on these idea. and sharing kitchens, bathrooms, etc sure is cost effective and energy efficient.
My latest design calls for free standing outside walls made with acrylic outside skins sort of like skylights (letting the sunlight inside the walls). The inside of the walls are recycled 2 liter bottles of pop painted black, filled with sand that has air circulating around them for winter heat collection and a drop in outside wall of 5″ thick stucco coated isocyanurate foam for summer cooling.
These walls are surprisingly very strong in compression to carry roof loading as long as the cap is tightly screwed on each bottle before stacking them on top of one another. You can do it lighter weight without the sand, but lose the radiant heat at night that the sand stores in the daytime.
Basically we build too heavy and too strong with warming mass of too much structure in the wrong place. Too heavy, too strong only means waste, cost and non eco friendly. Even those that put solar panels on their homes today put them in the wrong place – on the roof where you have to support the extra load of the weight of the panels.
The extra cost to build green can be offset to a large degree by using found materials that don’t weigh too much, building smart and smaller if necessary.
I know it’s hard to believe I am a Christian Conservative Republican responsible for destroying the planet and who knows what else. But, save your 2 liter plastic pop bottles. I may need them later and you may want to live with me one day
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I think the environmental wackos are trying to eliminate all “clean” sources of energy, so that we will run out of oil, gas and coal sooner. That way they will get their perfectly clean environment sooner and we can all freeze to death in the dark.
Sounds like fun, huh?
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My next-door neighbors have a wood-burning stove, with the chimney on the side of the house closest to ours. I love the smell!
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There are some neighbors who need to make other people miserable and complain a lot. Maybe these people need new windows. Maybe they should open their windows on the other side of their house for fresh air. I don’t know. They could be like Llama suggests: allergic to grass clippings.
I mentioned the legislation I read about being passed in Maine because people really use the WBFP for heat up there, especially with heating oil being so high this year. Maybe there is a problem when a lot of people in a neighborhood use WBFPs. They also are very environmentally friendly up there, very green, so the legislation may have a dual purpose.
In this situation, the people with the fireplace should be concerned about polluting in general, and if they make the effort to mitigate the pollution, it could forestall a lawsuit, which costs a lot more money, and they would be doing their part to keep the environment clean. They would still be able to enjoy their fireplace with a filter on it.
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#12, NJL, I haven’t followed the issue that closely, since we don’t have a woodstove or fireplace right now. My recollection of the proposed legislation is that it dealt with wood-burning furnaces, which are generally situated outside, with the heat then pumped into the house. Many of those furnaces are not airtight, and some owners are not careful about what they burn in the furnaces. So neighbors to those kinds of furnaces and owners may need some regulations in place to help reduce pollutants. For the most part, that’s an issue better handled on the local level, rather than state level, I think.
There may be other legislation dealing with woodstoves, but, as I said, I haven’t been paying much attention.
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MMacMurray, I knew you’d know more!
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ChristianLeftist,
Because, if you discharge something into the water, air, or dump it on the land, you are responsible for putting it there and for it’s effects.</i?
Do you drive a car? Ever? The chemicals there would be far more toxic than burning wood, for crying out loud!
Cameron,
Yes, I do, and I am responsible for putting those pollutants out there when I do. And so, that’s why I support emissions controls for cars, mandates to increase fuel economy resulting in less discharge from automobiles, and increasing the availbility of, and my use of, public transit.
In other words, I acknowledge my responsibility, and I support efforts that help reduce the amount of junk I’m putting out there.
And also, yes, I have a WBFP. I’m responsible for the smoke that comes out and the effects it has. If my neighbor had health problems, and it was bothering him, then I’d curtail my use of it, and/or install a filter if available. It’s unreasonable to expect him to suffer health-wise or economically because of what I choose to put out there… it is common courtesy for me not put it out there.
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Ah yes – another chance for conservative Christians to express their contempt for clean air and environmentalism in general.
Look, at one time wood burning was common. But there were far fewer homes and they were much futher apart. I’m assuming the family has a primary heat source other than the fireplace. If not, perhaps the solution is for the neighbors to help them financially, with an agreement to limit the use of the fireplace to certain weather days.
Well, I’m sure there are some creative solutions. But what fun is that when we can talk about the government banning fireplaces?
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Anlir, we care about a new heavens and a new earth. You don’t polish bass on a stinking ship.
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