By Jennifer Colaizzi
Environmental Protection Agency

Across the country this holiday season, families and friends will gather around fires in woodstoves or fireplaces. But how you build that fire – and what you burn – can have a significant impact on air quality and health, both inside your home and out.

Whether you’re using a woodstove, pellet stove, or your fireplace, seeing smoke from your chimney means your fire isn’t burning efficiently or cleanly as it could.
Woodsmoke contains fine particles – also called fine particle pollution or PM2.5 — which can harm the lungs, blood vessels and heart. People with heart, vascular or lung disease, and older adults and children are more at risk.

Here are some simple tips for building cleaner-burning fires:

If you heat your home with wood, using an EPA-certified wood stove can help you save wood while putting less smoke into the air. In January 2014, the agency proposed updates to its requirements for newly manufactured wood heaters that will make new woodstoves, outdoor wood boilers and other wood heaters cleaner in the future. EPA anticipates issuing final requirements by Feb. 3, 2015. Information on the proposed requirements for residential wood heaters is at http://go.usa.gov/MbmJ.

More best burning tips can be found at epa.gov/burnwise/bestburn.html.

Colaizzi works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.

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