[Gasification] Wood heating in the UK - whole log gasification

Dick Gallien Dick Gallien
Sat Dec 28 11:38:31 CST 2013


 

On Sat, Dec 28, 2013 at 10:28 AM, David <david at h4c.org> wrote:


Jason,

 

On 12/28/2013 12:57 AM, Jason wrote:

PS. I have one aquaintance in New Zealand that is challenging the science
around respiratory disease and emissions from wood smoke. He says the link
is tenuous and the early bogus studies keep getting repeated and used as
justification to ban wood stoves. 

 

Water is necessary for life and too much can drown you. Similarly with some
things, a little can be of benefit. I recall a study of woodcutters that
showed they had increased resistance to colds, and this was attributed to
intermittent exposure to wood smoke. On the other hand, the WHO says that
1.6 million people die every year from exposure to indoor air pollution,
i.e. also (for the most part) wood smoke. (Coal smoke is far more deadly.)
The epidemiology is pretty well established.

The term of art is hormesis, for which wikipedia offers the definition:

Hormesis is the generally favorable biological response to low exposures to
toxins and other stressors. A pollutant or toxin showing hormesis thus has
the opposite effect in small doses as in large doses. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis 


As far as the most common contributors to air pollution, it may end up that
airborne particulate matter of a certain size range, particularly where the
makeup of the particles includes irritants leading to inflammation, will be
seen to be most at fault for negative impacts on health. Not wood smoke,
exactly, in other words, but some things found in wood smoke, may well be
identified as the key bad actors. That would be my current best guess, where
I am solidly grounded in nearly perfect ignorance.

It may be hard to get around the better safe than sorry approach that many
might be inclined to take. The future promises to have more regulation, from
almost any point of view.


d.

-- 

David William House

"The Complete Biogas Handbook" www.completebiogas.com 
Vahid Biogas , an alternative energy consultancy www.vahidbiogas.com 

"Make no search for water.       But find thirst,
And water from the very ground will burst." 

(Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in Delight of Hearts , p. 77) 

http://bahai.us/

 

  _____  


 <http://www.avast.com/> 

This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus
<http://www.avast.com/>  protection is active. 

 


_______________________________________________
Gasification mailing list

to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
Gasification at bioenergylists.org

to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenerg
ylists.org

for more Gasifiers,  News and Information see our web site:
http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20131228/139c33eb/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 20131101_164615.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 375828 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20131228/139c33eb/attachment.jpg>


More information about the Gasification mailing list