How to Prevent Environmental and Health Damage of Wood Smoke

As with any by-product of burning, wood smoke contains a number of pollutants that can be harmful to your wellbeing. The four main ones that threaten your health are particulate matter, carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Let’s take a look at the potential dangers of each pollutant.

 

Particulate matter is one of the primary components of smog, and can travel into your lungs where it will cause respiratory and heart problems. At high levels, colourless, odourless CO gas is poisonous, and can mess up your blood’s delivery of oxygen to the rest of your body. VOC is a term that covers a wide range of compounds that often don’t have a colour, taste or smell, but they can directly impact your health as well as contributing to smog. Finally, as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are thought to cause cancer, these compounds are of particular concern. Therefore, if you use a wood stove, fireplace or fire pit in your home or garden, you need to take steps to minimise your risk of health damage.

 

1. Make sure you use the right wood: The wood should be dry, clean and properly seasoned. This means you need to cut it, split it and stack it in a covered area for about six months before you burn it.

 

2. Make sure you use the right technique: With the right technique, you can produce more heat and, as a result, use less wood. When you’re starting the fire, allow for as much ventilation and possible. Then, when the wood is well-charred, close the dampers.

 

3. Make sure you use the right size: As smaller pieces of wood burn more efficiently, they are a better source of heat so opt for smaller sizes.

 

4. Make sure you don’t burn household waste: It can be tempting to get rid of your household rubbish by just chucking it on the fire, but it can really do some damage to your fireplace or fire pit. More to the point, wrappers, plastics, foam, the coloured ink on magazines, and boxes produce harmful chemicals when burned, so you’re not doing any good to your environmental wellness.

 

5. Make sure the wood has not been chemically treated: Pressure treated or any other chemically treated wood is often used for structures in outdoor settings such as fences, decks and play structures, but it’s not safe to burn. These kinds of woods produce smoke that may produce chemical residues that could threaten your health. Instead, consult the local authorities in your area for the best way to dispose of chemically treated wood.

 

6. Make sure the wood you use won’t emit toxins into the environment: Driftwood, plywood, particle board, or any wood with glue on or in it will release toxic chemicals when burned, so steer clear.

 

7. Make sure the wood doesn’t threaten family wellness: Burning wood that’s wet, rotted, diseased or mouldy may expose your family to health-harming moulds and spores. If your child has a respiratory condition, they will be at a particular risk as these conditions are believed to be especially sensitive to mould. Plus, you can protect yourself and your family from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning by installing at least one CO detector in your home.

 

8. Make sure the air is right: You should not burn wood on days when the air pollution levels are high.

 

9. Make sure you keep up with the maintenance and care guidelines: There’s a reason that the manufacturers recommend certain procedures, so follow these carefully when cleaning and maintaining your chimney.

Categories: aromatic hydrocarbons, burning wood, carbon monoxide, chemically treated, health impact, particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic, prevention, treated wood, wood, wood smoke

How Does Abuse From Your Partner Affect Family Wellness?

If your wellness is under threat from physical or sexual abuse, you’re not alone. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 35% of women worldwide have been victims of physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner, which can further impact their mental wellbeing.

 

In a new publication focused on violence against women and the resulting health effects, WHO reported that the physical trauma of domestic violence isn’t the only wellness concern facing 35% of the world’s women, but it can also cause a wide range of psychological traumas. If your partner is physically or sexually abusive, you can experience a sense of hopelessness which feeds into substance abuse issues, and stress which can even lead to failed immunity and organ function. Family wellness may also be affected by your partner’s abuse – even if he never touches your children – as the health of children birthed by mothers, who are victims, is often also likely to be impacted.

 

WHO outlined the psychological issues related to domestic violence; rooted in stressful home environments in which you feel like you have no control over the painful things you endure each day from someone ‘close’ to you. These are:

 

• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)


• Anxiety


• Depression


• Eating disorders


• Suicidal tendencies

 

The latter two issues often arise as a coping mechanism if you feel especially depressed, helpless, and anxious about your situation. According to AfterSilence.org, a support website for women who have suffered sexual violence, about 30 to 40% of eating disorder patients are survivors of sexual trauma. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders adds that 50% of people with eating disorders meet the criteria for depression.

 

However, mood disorders created by domestic abuse, albeit preventable, often go unnoticed as they are often masked in substance use and abuse. In Canada, a 2004 study found that 31% of those who suffered a mood disorder like depression were also alcohol-dependent. WHO reports that, as a woman experiencing domestic violence, you are 2.3 times more likely to develop an alcohol abuse issue and 2.6 times more likely to be depressed or suffer anxiety. WHO argues that we need to remove the stigma associated with the poor health that results from intimate partner violence.

Categories: domestic abuse, health impact, stigma

How Does Chronic Stress Contribute to Your Wellbeing?

From the time you get up to the time you go to bed, some form of stress will have an impact on your wellness. However, it’s not just your emotional health that takes a hit from life’s daily worries; chronic stress contributes to all illness, and can threaten your overall wellbeing.

In the medical literature section of the Library of Congress, there are over 18,000 publications and research articles on the link between stress and chronic disease. However, what’s disappointing is that there are only 6,000 articles on stress-reduction therapies, and a measly 600 publications on stress-reduction therapies and chronic disease. It seems like scientists love to measure stress, but aren’t so fussed about doing anything to stop it.

Long-term stress can wreak havoc on your body, as no creature has been designed to handle chronic stress without injuring its health. There are links between chronic stress and high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, insomnia, bowel issues, stroke, anxiety, depression, lowered immunity and even may increase the risk of certain cancers. Chronic stress also hinders your cognitive abilities, as you can experience problems with memory and everyday thinking, and students who report chronic stress tend to have lower academic test scores. In fact, stress is implicated in 60% to 90% of all illnesses.

So what can you do to handle chronic stress more effectively, and implement a plan for stress reduction? Firstly, it is recommended that you limit your time spent sat in front of a screen soaking up the media, and instead get outside for some regular, relaxing exercise. When you eat, it’s not just healthy foods that are important but also taking the time to enjoy your food. Having regular massages increases the mood-elevating hormones, called endorphins, in your brain, while taking certain supplements of vitamins and minerals is advised to replenish the levels in your body that stress reduces. Aside from this, it’s important to have some fun and really play every day, to get yourself out of that stress mindset. If you need help changing things up, try something different like energy healing, such as Reiki, which is very relaxing.

 

Categories: health impact, massage, regular exercise