Critics of wood burning off base

Could somebody please tell Ken Dubinski to find a new cause to champion and leave his ridiculous wood burning issue alone?

His argument for outlawing wood burning in all of its horrible forms is mostly smoke and mirrors anyway.

The study he mentioned in the Daily Herald article was a New York EPA report on Outdoor Wood Boilers, which are used as the sole source of heat for some rural homes in upstate New York.

The OWBs studied in that report are outdoor smoke-belching furnaces, which throw off about 72 grams of particulate matter into the air per hour around the clock.

The New York EPA wrote the report hoping to get these outdoor furnaces outlawed or, at least, regulated like the Federal EPA regulates indoor wood burning stoves.

Since 1992, the only indoor wood stoves we are allowed to buy emit less than 6 grams of particulate matter per hour and suburban homes generally are not heated by these stoves on a full-time basis.

However, Mr. Dubinski doesn't mention this distinction but instead implies that anything that burns wood contributes equally to the deaths of 30,000 innocents each year.

Crusaders fail to realize laws require enforcement in order to be effective. It would be criminal if even one police officer had to spend his time responding to a 911 call because Ken Dubinski got a headache from his neighbor's crackling fireplace.

Tim Hennelly

Arlington Heights