If physical health problems previously discussed (cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, COPD, and asthma) aren’t enough reason to fear wood smoke, please be advised that there is evidence that PM2.5 attacks the brain, and leads to various forms of impairment, including dementia.
A recent study conducted in Ontario found a positive relationship between PM2.5 and dementia, and between nitrogen dioxide and dementia. PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide are both components of wood smoke.
Here is an accessible article that quotes the study:
Follow that with this study from Sweden:
“Researchers at the Umea University in northern Sweden have studied air quality in homes where wood-fire stoves are used and found that inhaling smoke from the stoves may not only cause asthma and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but can also enhance the risk of the onset of dementia...
"We have seen that people who live in areas where wood-fire stoves are common run a greater risk of being affected, and that also goes for people who live next to someone who uses wood-fire stoves,"...
Results from the Swedish study:
“The emission of PM2.5 from local residential wood burning was associated with dementia incidence with a hazard ratio of 1.55 for a 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5...
Study participants with an address in an area with the highest quartile of PM2.5 from residential wood burning and who also had a wood-burning stove were more likely to develop dementia than those in the lower three quartiles without a wood-burning stove...”
Wood smoke is hazardous to mind and body.
Why does Woodstock Council allow open air burning?
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