City to intensify wood-burning rules
La Presse headlines this story on the positive side: La cuisson au bois ne sera pas interdite, but the city plans to clamp down even harder on emissions from bagel and pizza places burning wood.
According to CTV’s version of the story, the health department “found that three per cent of fine particle emissions in Montreal came from commercial wood-burning stoves.” The article adds “According to officials, it causes about 39 per cent of fine particle emissions.” I suppose “it” in this second cite means wood-burning overall, which – if an accurate summary and not a mistake – means only a relatively small proportion of the wood-burning in the city is done for commercial cooking.
I’m wondering if the issue here is that wood-burning fireplaces are a toy of the relatively wealthy, so the city finds it hard to identify and fine the perpetrators. For example, I know an elderly couple in the posher part of NDG who have a fireplace they use, and no intention to stop using it on chilly winter days. I doubt an inspector will be sent to their house, or to houses in upper Westmount, Senneville, upper Outremont, TMR…
Alex 15:31 on 2019-12-05 Permalink
A lot of fine particulate comes from Petrol/Diesel Engines but I guess its easier to wean people off bagels…
Alex 15:36 on 2019-12-05 Permalink
Also I find it interesting that in the article they talk about transport emissions but don’t make a point to mention, as they do with wood burning, that breathing them in is also carcinogenic
Kate 19:57 on 2019-12-05 Permalink
Alex, the CTV piece says: “[wood burning] causes about 39 per cent of fine particle emissions, coming second only to transportation, at 45 per cent.” As you say, it’s easier to make a big fuss over a few bakeries and restaurants than to ask people to drive less.
qatzelok 13:46 on 2019-12-06 Permalink
Our system is geared towards selling as many things as possible. So after selling us rustic fireplaces and powerful motorized vehicles, we can then be sold iron lungs and various cancer drugs.