Wood Burning Pollution As Compared to Car Pollution

Burning either wood or gasoline as fuel has both immediate and long-term effects on personal and public health and the environment. Whereas the impact of wood smoke is more on the immediate individual, car emissions contribute more to air pollution problems on a global front.

Pollutants

• Fire may not be the most dangerous part about burning wood.

  Burning wood releases a conglomeration of chemicals into the air. According to the EPA, aside from the carbon monoxide produced when burning many different materials, burning wood also produces "methane...formaldehyde...benzene" and a slew of hydrocarbons linked or possibly linked to cancer. Not only does burning wood release dangerous chemicals into the air, but it releases many of those chemicals as soot particles and liquid tar droplets, according to Traci Watson, writing for USAToday.com.

  Car emissions, on the other hand, are byproducts of a car's combustion system that burns gasoline. As with wood burning, car exhaust contains carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. However, according to Autotropolis.com, car exhaust has a few pollutants all its own: nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and ozone.

Health Hazards

• Respiratory illnesses can be triggered by either type of pollution.

  Burning wood produces smoke, which by itself can kill through suffocation. Cancer has been linked to many of the various hydrocarbons emitted in wood smoke. As stated by Traci Watson, the particle and liquid emissions of wood burning increase the likelihood of heart disease and asthma attacks as well. This latter effect of wood burning causes thousands of deaths in the USA each year.

  Using gasoline as fuel produces carbon monoxide, as does wood burning. This colorless and odorless gas replaces oxygen particles in human blood and can cause brain damage and death. Nitrogen oxides in car exhaust aggravate respiratory illnesses such as asthma and can create particulate pollution, which causes thousands of deaths each year, according to Autotropolis. Cancer has been linked to the hydrocarbons produced by burning gasoline.

Environmental Hazards

• Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, contribute to global warming.

  The carbon dioxide in wood smoke is a major gas associated with the greenhouse effect and global warming. Carbon dioxide prevents the sun's radiation from escaping Earth's atmosphere and traps the Earth's heat, which slowly raises the Earth's temperature, as stated by the EPA. The eventual effects of global warming could include floods, extreme weather and extinction of certain animal species.

  Car emissions include carbon dioxide as well, and according to Autotropolis the other chemicals associated with car exhaust have additional effects. The nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides produced in car exhaust contribute to acid rain, which can devastate plant life and dissolve certain building materials over time. These chemicals also contribute to smog--an unhealthy haze seen over major cities, which acts like a greenhouse gas and raises the temperature of the area, in addition to exacerbating respiratory illness.