Hello!

Since this past December, a neighbour has been burning firewood as his sole source of heat in Dundarave. For two months, there was a dense acrid, foul-smelling smoke for a 2-block radius (sometimes more depending on the prevailing wind) around 26th Street and Marine Drive.

I suffer from asthma. Every morning I woke up with a horrid headache and my eyes were sore, itchy, and red. My house smelled of his smoke.

I know who the culprit is but, unfortunately, after a month of intense research I discovered that there is no bylaw or law to cover the issue of foul-smelling wood smoke - not in West Vancouver and not in the GVRD. There is absolutely no government agency which can stop this arrogant person from damaging the health of those who live around him.

He was asked to stop but when he found out that it was perfectly legal for him to violate the rights of those around him to breathe, he continued to burn wood in his oldfashioned fireplace, the smoke of which went straight up his oldfastioned chimney, pumped into the air of the immediate neighbourhood. Toxic. Poisonous. He doesn't care. He refuses to acknowledge the rights of others to enjoy their health and life in their own houses.

There is NO mention of the issue of wood smoke in the so-called Environmental Action Plan for West Vancouver - a fact at which I am, frankly, appalled. What a farce and waste of our tax dollars!

Local and provincial governments should protect their citizens but now as winter approaches, my hundreds of letters have brought ZERO results.

If you suffer from asthma and have a chimney smoke problem that is negatively affecting your health, I ask you to telephone me at 921-1293. Together we can make a difference. Alone nobody will listen to us.

You may not consciously be aware of the dangers of wood smoke. Your response may be that chimney smoke doesn't bother you but it does. You may enjoy the smell of wood smoke in autumn but that smoke endangers other people's health and lives. People with heart disease, asthma, bronchitis, allergies, and compromised immune systems. In fact, it can cause those conditions. A Google search will guarantee you almost 1 million web pages on the negative aspects of wood smoke. Our local government in West Vancouver does NOTHING about this problem. The GVRD can only send out brochures. Wood smoke and the health problems it causes is not illegal. There is absolutely no interest in it.

Best regards,
Gale Leitch

IT'S NOT THE SMELL THAT IS THE ISSUE HERE... it is the harm that wood smoke causes to EVERYONE'S health. But specifically, Not just asthma sufferers... people with heart conditions, immune system problems.

There are other forms of heat that man can use... electricity, for one!

Asthma sufferers can DIE from exposure to smoke and other particulates in the air. People who insist on using old-fashioned wood fireplaces to heat their homes can use electricity instead. They have a choice.

I am deeply sorry that you lack the empathy and compassion that many other people are graced with.

I am sadly surprised - and so would the BC Heart and Lung Association as well as thousands of other researchers and scientists arround the world - to learn that, in your case, education does not work because some people are to arrogant and selfish to care the seriously negative effects their actions have on other people.

It's about conscience and being a good citizen. However, some people are incapable of that.

Legally, I am entitled to the enjoyment of my home and life. Legally, my health is a priority over my neighbour's desire to burn wood daily in his oldfashioned fireplace. Legally, he is responsible and liable for making me ill with his smoke.

Legally, any person who does something that is detrimental to the health and life of someone else must cease and desist and possibly pay damages as required. A Canadian - under the constitution - is not entitled to legally destroy another human being's health and life.

It is my opinion that some people have a distorted vision of their rights and a warped sense of entitlement which is entirely due to their arrogance and selfishness. To wit, my errant neighbour who doesn't care how his nightly wood burning affects his neighbour's health.

Sorry, but your opinion in regards to this issue is antisocial and backward-thinking and in direct opposition to law and environmental issues.

It is NOT a question of odour or smell, it is a question of life and health.

I feel that you need to be enlightened.

Please Google "wood smoke, health hazards" and you will find almost ONE MILLION web pages to educate yourself.

For me, this forum is an important opportunity to improve our environment. I am serious about improving our environment, not making it worse like my neighbour. But, for you, it seems to be an opportunity for you to entertain yourself.

I am concerned about my health and that of people affected by wood smoke NOW - not in some vague distant future when all the old houses in West Vancouver are erased from the landscape.

Burning wood daily in an old-fashioned living room fireplace is ignorant, selfish, and illegal in regards to the Canadian constitition because it negatively affects the health AND LIVES of others. Asthma and heart problems can KILL and so can the ignorant city dweller who burns firewood in an old-fashioned fireplace for 6 hours every night, toxic substances going straight up his chimney into the air we ALL breathe.
When we turn on our furnaces or open our windows, we want to breathe FRESH AIR, not soot and poisonous substances. Don't you?

West Vancouver District, or any local government can be held accountable for its lack of accountability to citizens as per British Columbia law.

I got your point and I ALREADY mentioned before that:

1) it is NOT the tenant's only source of heat according to his landlord who tells me the house has an electric furnace;

2) the tenant who is burning this wood told me himself that the ONLY reason he is burning wood is because it is CHEAPER than electricity.

Mary, do you understand the above points because I don't know how to make it any simpler for you. It is plain English!

The tenant is using his living room fireplace (of an old 20s to 30s house) to burn wood solely BECAUSE HE WANTS TO. Burning wood in an old-fashioned fireplace results in almost zero efficiency (as stated in various research articles on the subject) and almost zero warmth because, in an old house such as that one, there is a temperature inversion which draws in cold air from outside. I experienced this the last time I made a fire in my own fireplace which was several years ago. After a short period of time, the air in the living room became colder not warmer except IMMEDIATELY in front of the fire. OLD fireplaces as sources of warmth are inefficient. Why don't you look it up on the internet? I am giving you plenty of information for you to research this subject yourself - if you're interested and not just using this forum as a means of entertainment. At any rate, I do not want to continue explaining the situation to you if you are incapable of understanding what I do explain.

One further note... if ANY of my neighbours complained that I was doing anything that negatively affected their health, I WOULD STOP.

Do you understand this, Mary? Because it is a pretty simple concept.

I know that a fireplace is inefficient heat. That it in fact sucks the air out of your house and sends it up the chimney along with the hot air and particulates that are offensive to all.
I know the heat goes out of the house and up the chimney. I have told you I understand that, and I agree with all your research and that things need to change.
In fact I have taken a wood-burning fireplace out of my house!


You state floodedsky,
“The tenant who is burning this wood told me himself that the ONLY reason he is burning wood is because it is CHEAPER than electricity”.

Thank you for confirming it was a financial choice for this person, whom I am going to deduce, because of his comments is indeed faced with financial issues, and maybe has limited choices,
and I choose to have empathy for him.
And once again I state
If this person NEEDs food OVER electricity regardless of the world’s opinions on wood burning, he has a right to huddle by his wood fire and imagine he is warm, it is not yet against the law.