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Open Burning Sector . Overview of Air Quality: Monitoring + Some Results

Open Burning Sector . Overview of Air Quality: Monitoring + Some Results. Ben Weinstein, BSc . Air Quality Meteorologist Ministry of Environment March 2012. Why are we here?. In BVLD Airshed people are affected by emissions of particulate matter, PM

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Open Burning Sector . Overview of Air Quality: Monitoring + Some Results

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  1. Open Burning Sector.Overview of Air Quality: Monitoring + Some Results Ben Weinstein, BSc. Air Quality Meteorologist Ministry of Environment March 2012

  2. Why are we here? • In BVLD Airshed people are affected by emissions of particulate matter, PM • This occurs mostly in the form of wood combustion / drying • General consensus among the health community that there is no threshold at which there are no impacts. (e.g. there are no safe levels of particulate matter)

  3. Oct 12 2011 Venting: Good until sunset Oct 12 2011 7:00 PM

  4. Acute and Chronic Effects • Impacts from short-term exposure: • mostly in people with pre-existing health conditions • acute health effects: • breathing problems, increase the severity and occurrences of asthma attacks, heart attacks and eye, nose and throat irritation. • Impacts from long-term exposure: • puts the entire population at greater risk of developing chronic health conditions • Bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia, cancer, death • Also linked to pre-term births, low birth weight • More burden is attributed to long-term exposures (as much as 85% of mortalities)

  5. Burden • Not as important as factors such as smoking or diabetes but still significant. Mortality burden of PM2.5 for Northern and Interior BC has been estimated to be between 0.2% and 0.93% (16 – 74 deaths/year)*.

  6. Intake Fraction • Seasonal intake fraction can be high for some burns depending on where and when

  7. How Are We Doing? • Have chosen some selected indicators and some from this specific source • Overall annual averages (min 7 years for trend analysis) • A look at AQ from open burning season in 2011

  8. PM2.5 Advisory Days in BVLD

  9. Significance of Source 2003 Micro Emission Inventory determined that over 50% of annual PM2.5 emitted in BVLD were from open burning of wood. Most burning takes place between mid-September to mid-November

  10. Quantified by emission inventories Measured by MOE Studied by health professionals In BVLD we track open burning emissions and measure ambient concentrations from all sources Hard to differentiate sources at monitoring stations, though data corroborates with open burning notifications

  11. Oct 16 2010 3:00 PM

  12. Oct 17 2010, Midnight

  13. 2011 Burning Season ~ 20,000 Piles BFP Oct 4 – Nov 1 Canfor Sept 30– Oct 19 HFP Sept 27 – Nov 3 PIR Sept 23 – Oct 16

  14. Monitoring Issue Monitoring technology is changing in B.C. from existing instruments to more complete measurements of PM2.5 Current instruments are known to undermeasure PM2.5, especially in the cold winter months. At times, actual concentration may be 100% higher than measured

  15. PM2.5 Summary Statistics

  16. Summary • No safe threshold for effects of PM • Open burning is large source which seasonally effects air quality • Population exposure to smoke from open burning during this season can be high • Airshed planning group has done a good job of managing this source and minimizing impacts (many examples) • When new PM instruments come online higher concentrations expected. This will lead to more frequent AQ management

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