15th Winter Spare The Air Day Set For Saturday

MILPITAS, CA -- We're not out of the woods yet. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is issuing Saturday the season’s 15th Winter Spare the Air Alert, a mandate that bans burning wood, manufactured fire logs or any other solid fuel both indoors and outdoors for 24 hours in the nine-county region.

Winds are expected to shift southeast and bring smoke from the San Joaquin Valley, in addition to local air pollution, that will cause unhealthy air quality in the region. The bulk of the unhealthy air will settle in the North Bay, where those with asthma or exercise over prolonged periods are urged to refrain from being outside. The rest of the Bay Area will also be expected to abide by the Winter Spare the Air requirement as "air pollution doesn't know any boundaries," district spokesman Ralph Borrmann said.

“During the recent Camp Fire, Bay Area residents experienced how quickly smoke can saturate the region and cause significant health impacts,” district Executive Officer Jack Broadbent said. “Like wildfire smoke, smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces in the region pollutes our air. It’s vital that all Bay Area residents not burn wood during this Winter Spare the Air Alert to help reduce pollution that harms us all.”

While the Camp Fire of Butte County was raging last month, the air was so thick with smoke Bay Area residents either fled to the hills of Lake Tahoe, stayed inside at unprecedented rates and turned their headlights in the middle of the day like the motorists did traveling over the Altamont Pass.

This year's air quality is shaping up to be a doozy for enviro aficionados, athletes, sightseers and workers who practice their trades outside. Last winter, Bay Area residents experienced 19 spare the air days in the entire season. The year before, the district issued only seven. In 2015, only one came up, while a tally of 30 were counted in 2014.

Like cigarette smoke, wood smoke contains fine particles and carcinogenic substances that make the air harmful to breathe inside and outside the home. Wood smoke is the major source of air pollution in the Bay Area in the wintertime and is especially harmful to children, the elderly, and people with respiratory conditions.

It is illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to use their fireplaces, woodstoves, pellet stoves, outdoor fire pits or any other wood-burning devices during a Winter Spare the Air Alert. Exemptions are available for homes without permanently installed heating, where woodstoves or fireplaces are the only source of heat.

Anyone whose sole source of heat is a wood-burning device must use an EPA-certified or pellet-fueled device that is registered with the district to qualify for an exemption. An open-hearth fireplace no longer qualifies for an exemption.

First-time violators will be given the option of taking a wood smoke awareness class, online or by mail, to learn about the hazards of wood smoke pollution in lieu of paying a $100 ticket. Second violations will result in a $500 ticket, and subsequent ticket amounts will be higher.

The public must check before they burn during the Winter Spare the Air season, which runs from Nov. 1 through Feb. 28. The daily burn status can be found:

• Via text alerts. To sign up, text the word "START" to the number 817-57
• On the district Web sites: www.baaqmd.gov or www.sparetheair.org
• Via the toll-free hotline 1-877-4-NO-BURN (complaints can also be filed via the hotline)
• By signing up for AirAlerts at www.sparetheair.org or phone alerts at 800-430-1515
• Via the Spare the Air iPhone and Android Apps

In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area is the single largest source of air pollution, contributing about one-third of the harmful fine particulate pollution in the air. One fireplace burning can pollute an entire neighborhood. Exposure to wood smoke—like cigarette smoke—has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses and even increased risk of heart attacks. Breathing fine particulate accounts for over 90 percent of premature deaths related to air pollution.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area. For more information about Spare the Air, visit www.sparetheair.org.

--Image via Shutterstock