Perplexed:
Most danced around your question.
Try this on.
When wood burns completely, the chemical reaction results in light, heat, carbon dioxide and water. Problem: wood does not burn completely, especially in a wood stove. When it does not burn completely, wood gives off smoke - a known pollutant with known adverse health effects.
Pollutants in smoke:
1. Carbon Monoxide (CO) - a known toxin which binds to hemoglobin in your blood some 200+ times faster than oxygen. Get enough and it kills you (everyone who burns in their home should have a good CO detector). Lower levels cause long term health problems.
2. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - one of the components in sunlight which forms smog (ozone) which has known adverse effects on the lungs and makes breathing difficult. It also helps form fine particles in the atmosphere (see below).
3. Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) - impairs the lungs and inhibits them to fight infection. It combines with VOCs to form smog and with water in the air to form acid rain.
4. Toxic Pollutants - cancer causing substances (formaldehyde, benzene, others).
5. Particulate Matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10 - smaller than a human hair) - condensed unburned organic vapors forming small droplets of wood tar and gases. At this size, they can be inhaled into the lungs which aggravates many respiratory conditions. Worse and especially harmful, even smaller particles (PM2.5) can enter the blood stream via the lungs contributing to lung disease including cancer.
So, if you burn in an open fireplace or an older leaky wood stove, you have a good chance you are exposing yourself, your family and many others outside (neighbors, your community) to these noxious and harmful agents.
The good news is that they can be greatly minimized by burning dry wood in hot fires in EPA modern approved wood stoves.
Read more here - Ref:
www.baaqmd.gov
www.sparetheair.org
Hope this helps.
Aye, Marty