Air District Urges No Wood Burning On Thanksgiving

By David Mills

Go ahead and cook the turkey but try not to use your fireplace or wood stove on Thanksgiving.

That's the request from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Air quality officials say Thursday is not a Winter Spare the Air day, but they would still like Bay Area residents to refrain from burning wood on the holiday.

"To protect our families and neighbors from the hazards of wood smoke, please refrain from using fireplaces or wood stoves," the district's executive officer Jack Broadbent, said in a statement.

The reason is this week's cold and still weather has continued to allow air pollution to build up in the region.

"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," the district said in a news release. "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 more than 90 percent of premature deaths related to air pollution."

The district issued two Winter Spare the Air alerts earlier this week because of the unhealthy air quality.