Ellen Golla
@woodsmokestinks.bsky.social
240 followers 290 following 86 posts
Air quality advocate focused on #WoodSmokePollution. Former caregiver.
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I thought at first it must’ve been a paid piece, but I don’t see a disclaimer.
Interesting bit of greenwashing there, describing HETAS and Woodsure (which entirely make up the so-called “Cleaner Safer Group”) as an “independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating a cleaner environment.” [Cough]
Where I live (far northern California), the air quality management district makes money selling burn permits. They actively promote open burning. It’s outrageous.
Reposted by Ellen Golla
Wood smoke—whether visible or invisible—is toxic.
Thanks… It is awful. One neighbor who smoked out our house while my (now late) husband was dying told me she’s glad she heats with wood, because fire is spiritual… It’s very much a lifestyle choice there, unfortunately.
Most rural people I know, myself included, live in areas with more like a suburban pop. density. Two of my immediate neighbors have multiple wood stoves—as much as anything, it’s a cultural lifestyle thing. It causes tremendous harm in places like this, but, indeed, resistance to change is great…
A study in Australia found approx as many people die each year in the Australian Capital Territory due to pollution from wood stoves as did during the “Black Summer” year from extreme wildfire smoke.

It’s not a contest. Smoke is just bad.
I’m sorry about your situation.
Wood burning shifts the cost burden onto other people, who themselves may be financially struggling. It’s a serious environmental justice issue that does not get nearly enough recognition. www.dsawsp.org/health/real-...
The real cost of wood burning
When we include the health-related costs, it turns out that wood heating is surprisingly expensive.
www.dsawsp.org
I once asked someone I know, who insists vehemently they couldn’t afford heat w/out burning wood, what they pay for firewood. It turned out, in our rural forested area where wood is “cheap” and electricity notoriously $$$$, it was ~the same as my entire electric bill, even w/ an added space heater.
Nobody I know is promoting fossil fuels. I personally live in an all-electric house and have had a heat pump for 30+ years. I avoid burning anything if I can help it.
Most rural people, like me, live in areas with a suburban population density and access to electricity and other utilities. Wood smoke pollution is a huge, life-shortening, and very expensive problem in my county. We need to start recognizing the incredible costs to people who don’t burn wood too.
A “smattering of people who burn wood” create the largest source of air pollution in many communities and neighborhoods. It’s not a mutually exclusive problem, but wood burning is an outsized, but greatly under-recognized and unacknowledged, source of harm.