{"id":415,"date":"2020-04-10T20:40:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T20:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/?p=415"},"modified":"2020-07-06T23:11:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T23:11:46","slug":"smoked-out-in-kitimat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/2020\/04\/10\/smoked-out-in-kitimat\/","title":{"rendered":"Smoked Out in Kitimat"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> 2,798<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just spoke to Mic in Kitimat who is home this winter, normally he is away at this point (retired) and this wouldn\u2019t be an issue but this year he\u2019s home all the time! His neighbours are literally smoking him out! What can he do? He and his wife have developped a hacking cough as if they were smokers but they aren\u2019t. Being outside even for a few minutes he can taste and smell the smoke. His attic and his outside shed and the things stored in it just reek of smoke. He\u2019s had to plug his dryer vent to reduce the amount of outside air from getting in and he\u2019s worried about the facia boards on his house letting in air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inconsiderate neighbour next door recently converted their garage to an enclosed room, accessible from the house. According to the grapevine they salvaged an old wood stove after the reno. and its been smoking ever since. The chimney sits very near to the fence line (no set back rules apply) and the chimney\u2019s height is single storey – 10 ft?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cann\u2019t upload their pic but the photo above shows the same thing happening in Burns Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pic: An Outdoor Wood Boiler – not set back 30m, chimney not high enough, green wood burning – South of Burns Lake, This was reported by a retired couple years ago, helpless and suffering the ill effects. In this case even the Ministry of Environment removed their air quality monitoring station form the site citing the fact it was contaminated and they couldn\u2019t get a good read on ambiant air quality because of the localized pollution level. Solid Fuel Burning Domestic Aplliance Regulation (SFBDAR) regulated by the: http:\/\/www.bclaws.ca\/civix\/document\/id\/complete\/statreg\/218_2016<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response from Kitimat council is disappointing to the victim. The building inspector claims the homeowner is compliant with bylaws and building codes. Apparently Kitimat\u2019s only air quality bylaws address backyard burning. If you know any different – please comment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what to do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The I suggest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 install a home air filter, a hepa filter works great taking out particles down to a size of .3 microns. A MERVE 13 filter will also reduce small particle size in a room see our previous blog entry on making these
2 our society has a plethora of flyers, literature and dvds on stove operation, seasoning wood, timber and slash management, health effects, smoke management planing and more, we\u2019re happy to share – contact us coordinator@cleanairplan.ca. What I sent is lited and links are below.
3 look for a citizen science monitor near you – maybe a purple air monitor exists in Kitimate – lets calibrate those readings to ours and that of the MOE, what do we notice – perhaps you might like to borrow and install one indoors and outdoor at your house
4 call the RAPP line to report the pollution – its the only complaints based pollution help line we\u2019ve got: (RAPP) 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP) or #7277 on the TELUS Mobility Network, https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/environment\/natural-resource-stewardship\/natural-resource-law-enforcement\/conservation-officer-service\/cos-rapp<\/a>
5 document your experience with pictures and logs of contact between you and the neighbour, town etc.
6 Clair Ratte of the Conservative Party was a big clean air proponent when I spoke to her in Smithers – find her – what can her office do to help?
7 find a good neighbour – is there anyone willing to approach your neighbour and offer help splitting and stacking wood, operating the wood stove, talking to them about health impacts and more? In Smithers our bylaw enforcement officer has helped make these house calls. The odd volunteer firefighter will too since it\u2019s also a fire safety issue.
8 Contact UVIC, law students there will draft a letter to the resident with a legal position on all of this and it\u2019s a preliminary take on the possiblity of a legal suit.
9 Call Northern Health – this is an environmental health issue https:\/\/www.who.int\/airpollution\/news-and-events\/how-air-pollution-is-destroying-our-health<\/a>
10 Still not resolved: it\u2019s time to get a legal help\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/burningissues.org\/car-www\/pdfs\/boiller-order-BC.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/burningissues.org\/car-www\/legal\/BC-ruling.html<\/a>
https:\/\/www.wcel.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various Print Materials and Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood Burning, What you Need to Know, NHA, https:\/\/www.northernhealth.ca\/services\/environmental-health\/air-quality\/wood-burning<\/a>
Learn Before You Burn, NHA
Wood Smoke, poster, good news bad news, NHA
BurnItSmart, dvd, Gov\u2019t of Can and Province of BC
Burn it Smart, Enjoy the Fire not the Smoke, Gov\u2019t of Can
State of the Air, 2018, BC Lung, https:\/\/bc.lung.ca\/protect-your-lungs\/air-quality-lung-health\/bc-state-air-report<\/a>
Particulate Matter and Outdoor Air Pollution, Health Link, BCCDC, https:\/\/www.healthlinkbc.ca\/healthlinkbc-files\/outdoor-air-pollution<\/a>
How to Prepare Your Fuel Supply, woodheat.org<\/a>
Good Firewood, the Key to successful Wood Burning, Burn it Smart, Gov\u2019t of Can, https:\/\/portieragency.com\/good-firewood-the-key-to-successful-wood-burning<\/a>\/
Portable Air Cleaners for Wildfire Smoke, BCCDC, http:\/\/www.bccdc.ca\/resource-gallery\/Documents\/Guidelines%20and%20Forms\/Guidelines%20and%20Manuals\/Health-Environment\/BCCDC_WildFire_FactSheet_PortableAirCleaners.pdf<\/a>
Health effects of Wildfire Smoke, BCCDC
https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2015-11\/documents\/wet_wood_rev_2015.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2,798 Just spoke to Mic in Kitimat who is home this winter, normally he is away at this point (retired) and this wouldn\u2019t be an issue but this year he\u2019s home all the time! His neighbours are literally smoking him out! What can he do? He and his wife have developped a hacking cough as if they were smokers but they aren\u2019t. Being outside even for a few minutes he can taste and smell the smoke. His attic and his outside shed and the things stored in it just reek of smoke. He\u2019s had to plug his dryer vent to reduce the amount of outside air from getting in and he\u2019s worried about the facia boards on his house letting in air. The inconsiderate neighbour next door recently converted their garage to an enclosed room, accessible from the house. According to the grapevine they salvaged an old wood stove after the reno. and its been smoking ever since. The chimney sits very near to the fence line (no set back rules apply) and the chimney\u2019s height is single storey – 10 ft?. I cann\u2019t upload their pic but the photo above shows the same thing happening in Burns Lake. The pic: An Outdoor Wood Boiler – not set back 30m, chimney not high enough, green wood burning – South of Burns Lake, This was reported by a retired couple years ago, helpless and suffering the ill effects. In this case even the Ministry of Environment removed their air quality monitoring station form the site citing the fact it was contaminated and they couldn\u2019t get a good read on ambiant air quality because of the localized pollution level. Solid Fuel Burning Domestic Aplliance Regulation (SFBDAR) regulated by the: http:\/\/www.bclaws.ca\/civix\/document\/id\/complete\/statreg\/218_2016 The response from Kitimat council is disappointing to the victim. The building inspector claims the homeowner is compliant with bylaws and building codes. Apparently Kitimat\u2019s only air quality bylaws address backyard burning. If you know any different – please comment! So what to do? The I suggest: 1 install a home air filter, a hepa filter works great taking out particles down to a size of .3 microns. A MERVE 13 filter will also reduce small particle size in a room see our previous blog entry on making these2 our society has a plethora of flyers, literature and dvds on stove operation, seasoning wood, timber and slash management, health effects, smoke management planing and more, we\u2019re happy to share – contact us coordinator@cleanairplan.ca. What I sent is lited and links are below.3 look for a citizen science monitor near you – maybe a purple air monitor exists in Kitimate – lets calibrate those readings to ours and that of the MOE, what do we notice – perhaps you might like to borrow and install one indoors and outdoor at your house4 call the RAPP line to report the pollution – its the only complaints based pollution help line we\u2019ve got: (RAPP) 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP) or #7277 on the TELUS Mobility Network, https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/environment\/natural-resource-stewardship\/natural-resource-law-enforcement\/conservation-officer-service\/cos-rapp5 document your experience with pictures and logs of contact between you and the neighbour, town etc.6 Clair Ratte of the Conservative Party was a big clean air proponent when I spoke to her in Smithers – find her – what can her office do to help?7 find a good neighbour – is there anyone willing to approach your neighbour and offer help splitting and stacking wood, operating the wood stove, talking to them about health impacts and more? In Smithers our bylaw enforcement officer has helped make these house calls. The odd volunteer firefighter will too since it\u2019s also a fire safety issue. 8 Contact UVIC, law students there will draft a letter to the resident with a legal position on all of this and it\u2019s a preliminary take on the possiblity of a legal suit. 9 Call Northern Health – this is an environmental health issue https:\/\/www.who.int\/airpollution\/news-and-events\/how-air-pollution-is-destroying-our-health 10 Still not resolved: it\u2019s time to get a legal help\u2026. http:\/\/burningissues.org\/car-www\/pdfs\/boiller-order-BC.pdf http:\/\/burningissues.org\/car-www\/legal\/BC-ruling.htmlhttps:\/\/www.wcel.org Various Print Materials and Links: Wood Burning, What you Need to Know, NHA, https:\/\/www.northernhealth.ca\/services\/environmental-health\/air-quality\/wood-burning Learn Before You Burn, NHA Wood Smoke, poster, good news bad news, NHA BurnItSmart, dvd, Gov\u2019t of Can and Province of BC Burn it Smart, Enjoy the Fire not the Smoke, Gov\u2019t of Can State of the Air, 2018, BC Lung, https:\/\/bc.lung.ca\/protect-your-lungs\/air-quality-lung-health\/bc-state-air-report Particulate Matter and Outdoor Air Pollution, Health Link, BCCDC, https:\/\/www.healthlinkbc.ca\/healthlinkbc-files\/outdoor-air-pollution How to Prepare Your Fuel Supply, woodheat.org Good Firewood, the Key to successful Wood Burning, Burn it Smart, Gov\u2019t of Can, https:\/\/portieragency.com\/good-firewood-the-key-to-successful-wood-burning\/ Portable Air Cleaners for Wildfire Smoke, BCCDC, http:\/\/www.bccdc.ca\/resource-gallery\/Documents\/Guidelines%20and%20Forms\/Guidelines%20and%20Manuals\/Health-Environment\/BCCDC_WildFire_FactSheet_PortableAirCleaners.pdf Health effects of Wildfire Smoke, BCCDC https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2015-11\/documents\/wet_wood_rev_2015.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleanairplan.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}