Ash and Health question

[Starter]

First of all I excuse my ignorance on the matter, I've been reading a lot of stuff and sometimes the more one reads the less knowledge one gets.

I live in Malta. The lowest temperature we get here is 50F and it's nowhere close to freezing. We have utility rates higher than the US, and buying proper logs (yes we HAVE to buy them) is more expensive, hence we run our fireplace carefully on the free pallet wood we have access to.

Anyway to cut it short my question was that I read a lot about how ash and soot is dangerous and could cause cancer.

Now since we have just installed our insert and it's just a bare working skeleton, no hearth, no embellishments or decorations etc... I wanted to ask this question:

I clean the inside of the insert by scooping out the ash with my hands into a bin. I tried to use a broom inside the insert but it'd make way too much of a mess on the tiles outside.
Obviously by doing so I'd be having my head right at the mouth of the insert, and also obviously I have to breathe...

Is it dangerous to my health? I do wash my hands after cleaning the stove out, but it does take a heck of a lot of washing to remove the blackness.

 

[Gunner]

Get a small shovel to remove the ashes and you can were a dust mask if you like.

 

[Harley]

breathing in anything, like ash, dust,smoke, etc is not really good for you. Whether or not it actually harmful is another issue, and for the amounts we are talking here.... my money is on "it aint gonna hurt you". But, I would do, as Gunner said... get a small shovel and metal bucket. Carefully scoop them out to avoid making a mess, and keep your head out of the stove - you should be fine. Since wood stoves may be somewhat unusual where you are, you are probably not going to easily find an ash shovel and bucket as easy as we do over here. Improvise with something, and you should make sure its metal and has a lid (and don't use your hands) there still could be some very hot coals hiding in that pile of ash in the stove you think has cooled down.

 

[restorer]

Starter:

Try the small shovel or flat scoop. Take a wide paint brush and use that to get in the corners and odd spots. They are a lot cheaper than the dedicated fireplace brushes.

As far as breathing the ash and dust, it may be a problem, but man has mined coal and harvested wood for thousands of years. Wood has burned in open fires as long as man has been around. If we need to be concerned about modern appliances being hazardous it would seem that we would have killed off our ancestors. It's my opinion the ash issue is a non-starter. You get exposure to more carsinogens breathing car exhaust every day than you would get cleaning your stove.

 

[colsmith]

Buy a metal dust pan, such as is used for picking up crud after sweeping the floor. A large paint brush or large barbecue basting brush might work for the broom part, but the dust pan can just be stuck in to scoop things up, and the brushing part only would need to be for the final cleanup part after the scooping with the dust pan wasn't accomplishing much. Wear a dust mask if you seem to be breathing a lot of it up. I don't use one to clean out the stove, but I use a long handled fireplace shovel. You could also wear latex or rubber gloves while doing it, to save on the washing up.

As for our mining and wood burning ancestors, um, a lot of them did get diseases from breathing coal dust, ashes, etc. Just didn't kill most of them before they reproduced is why we are all here! Supposedly if you could all the deaths from black lung disease in coal miners it is actually a more dangerous form of electricity production than nuclear energy.

 

[Gooserider]

Part of the problem with this question is that there are LOTS of different things in wood ash, and the content varies depending on just what sort of wood was burned, if it had any chemicals on it (more likely with pallets), and so forth. Lots of variables, but it is worth noting that there is considerable evidence that breathing wood ashes is not good for you. The debate comes into the question of just how BAD for you it is... Another thing that is usually ignored in the more alarmist studies of just about anything is the fundamental premise of this sort of science, namely "The dose makes the poison" or that exposure above a certain threshold will be MUCH more hazardous than amounts below it.

There is a great deal of evidence that people like chimney sweeps back in the old days that had heavy exposure, coupled with poor personal hygeine got a lot of serious illnesses that could be linked to the exposure to combustion products. I would argue that we are seeing more cancer and other "exposure induced" diseases these days simply because we have improved medical science to the point where we aren't dieing from other stuff first...

My take is that a small amount of exposure probably won't do you a great deal of harm, but there is no sense in exposing yourself more than necessary.

1. Don't use your bare hands to clean out the ashes - get a small shovel or scoop, preferably with a fairly long handle. This is both to minize your skin exposure, and also because (as was mentioned earlier) you can have hot coals remaining several days after you thought a fire was out.

2. Keep your head and face out of the way as much as you can.

3. Wear some sort of dust mask. A surgical mask or one of those paper throw-away masks will help, I wear one of these woodworkers respirators when I'm cleaning out my stove, as I find it seals better than one of the paper masks, and is more comfortable. I think it also does a better job....

4. Don't overdo the cleaning! There is no need to remove every last bit of ash most of the time. In fact a moderate amount of ash will actually help subsequent fires maintain themselves and give you longer burn periods. Many stove manuals will even tell you to leave an inch or so in the bottom of the stove. The only time one might want to remove all the ash is at the end of the heating season when you are planning to not fire the stove for several months - ash is mildly hygroscopic (moisture absorbing) and corrosive, so it is good to clean it out if the stove will be unused for an extended period to minimize rusting. During the burning season, leave a reasonable amount of ash, you will certainly be able to get rid of all you need to using a metal scoop.

5. Try to minimize the dust - open the draft damper all the way while cleaning to suck as much ash as you can up the chimney. Use the scoop to pick up piles, and deposit them gently into your (FIRE PROOF METAL) ash container. Keep the ash container as close to the opening of the stove as you can. Cover the ash container when not in use. (Use the search engine to find other threads for advice on handling the ashes)

6. Since you are burning pallets, you may want to get a good magnet to run through the ashes in order to remove as many nails and fasteners as possible.

Hope this helps,

Gooserider

 

[Gooserider]

I just saw the pictures of your stove's inside in the other thread. It looks like you have a grate in the bottom that leads down into an ash drawer, is that so?

If that's the case, then what I would reccomend is getting an "ash rake" and using that to drag the ashes across the grate so they fall in the pan, then dump the pan into your larger ash bucket outside. That would be all you need for cleaning on a day to day basis.

An ash rake is essentially a long handle with a flat strip of metal, approx 3" x 6" welded across the end in the middle of the 6" side, closer to one edge, to form a "T" shape. The metal strip is slightly curved on the long edge so that you have a little bit of a catch when you are pulling it towards you. Think of a small metal garden rake without the teeth. It is a handy tool to use for moving ashes or coals around in the stove, I use it to even things out before I reload, or to move ashes into a pile to scoop out (I don't have an ash drawer)

Gooserider

 

[devil_121]

Yes, Starter you are right Years of exposure to the high concentrations ash in some remote areas of the United States significantly increase residents' risk of dying from lung cancer and heart disease. Previous studies have linked soot in the air to many respiratory ailments and even death, but the new findings "provide the strongest evidence to date that long-term exposure to fine particulate ash pollution common to many remote areas is an important risk factor for cardiopulmonary mortality,"

 

[restorer]

Yes, Starter you are right Years of exposure to the high concentrations ash in some remote areas of the United States significantly increase residents' risk of dying from lung cancer and heart disease. Previous studies have linked soot in the air to many respiratory ailments and even death, but the new findings "provide the strongest evidence to date that long-term exposure to fine particulate ash pollution common to many remote areas is an important risk factor for cardiopulmonary mortality,"

Nice comment. Care to elaborate? What do you mean by high concentration of ash? Is that from industrial sources, power plant or manufacturing, or is that plain wood smoke distilled to a concentrated level? How is this directly related to long cancer and heart disease? Would asking for the study source and the published data be too much to ask.

Too often the vague implies the specific. I think the questions were in reference to being around a wood stove and emptying the ash from the firebox. Does the studies referred to in any way have to do with this question. Think this question has been covered in the responses earlier in the thread. If you have something specific to add, please let us all know.

 

[GVA]

Yes, Starter you are right Years of exposure to the high concentrations ash in some remote areas of the United States significantly increase residents' risk of dying from lung cancer and heart disease. Previous studies have linked soot in the air to many respiratory ailments and even death, but the new findings "provide the strongest evidence to date that long-term exposure to fine particulate ash pollution common to many remote areas is an important risk factor for cardiopulmonary mortality,"

Bhodie is that you? :lol:
I think they have arrived guy's... >:-(

 

[begreen]

Someone's trolling.

 

[restorer]

Darn, you guys spoiled my fun. I wanted to play the fish. Think you have the character wrong, but ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

 

[begreen]

Well the name devil 1_2_1 says it all. The link to online prescriptions ices the cake. Like we really need more spam.

 

[restorer]

Well the name devil 1_2_1 says it all. The link to online prescriptions ices the cake. Like we really need more spam.

That's subtle. Didn't realize the signature is a hotlink. Hummm, how'd they hide that? Think it's still a throwback from BI. Please ask another question so we can be sure?

 

[Gooserider]

Are you sure it isn't just someone from BI returning our visits over there? The tramadol link might be just because they realize they are a PITA and want to help... %-P

Gooserider

 

[wg_bent]

That's why I'd like to see more info required in a person's profile. Some crumb of info would be good.