The combustion of biomass as a heating source is a significant worldwide source of PM2.5. Over 2.2 million homes in the U.S. currently use woodstoves as their primary heating source, of which most are traditional, inefficient stove designs. Wood smoke from residential wood stoves during winter months is the single largest source of air pollution annually in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Despite EPA emission standards for catalytic (4.1 g/h) and non-catalytic woodstoves (7.5 g/h), both traditional and EPA certified wood burning stoves continue to be a significant source of ambient PM2.5, especially in areas with high population density, resulting in sustained, elevated PM2.5 exposures both outside and within homes. This chronic exposure is known to cause significant adverse health effects, including respiratory illness, multiple cancers, and eventual mortality. Recent studies suggest health effects are specifically related to the combustion source, and previous work indicates that significant differences in the chemical composition of PM2.5 result from stove design, such as differences in traditional style wood stoves and EPA certified wood stoves, as well as fuel type and stove airflow settings. This study attempts to model the difference between traditional and EPA certified wood stoves with regard to sugar anhydrides as a fraction of total PM2.5 for future source apportionment studies, and further investigate the variation in levels of resin acids and their impact on human health.

Comparative analysis of wood stove smoke

249th National Meeting (2015)

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