Getting gassed by an OWB

[peakbagger]

I was out hiking today and came down the mountain to a small village near the trailhead. It was definitely a cloudy day and wood smoke was hanging low. When I was walking towards the village I could smell very acrid smoke, initially I thought was an old high sulfur coal boiler or a pulp and paper recovery boiler. My back of my throat was burning and as I walked along the road to my car it got worse and then got a bit better. A few minutes later I was driving home and I started hacking, its now been a couple of hours and I am still hacking. I used to work in industry and I can tell when I got exposed to nasty stuff. Sulfur dioxide will convert to mild sulfuric acid when breathed in and that irritates the lungs.

There are couple of OWBs that I noticed upwind, all had low exhausts and the plumes were dropping to the ground. It was fairly warm (for northern NH) so I expect the boilers were idling with the air damper closed.

I don't expect permanent damage but I really wonder what the heck someone was burning. All I can guess is someone got a deal on some high sulfur coal and was stretching their wood supply or they decided to get rid of a load of pressure treated by burning it. Considering I was only there around 10 minutes I will survive but wonder how the locals can live with it. Hope there are no kids around

 

[mike van]

Burning wood treated with CCA or any of the other preservative chemicals can put some nasty stuff into the air - No idea what was there, doesn't seem like plain old wood smoke would cause such a reaction -

 

[Bob Rohr]

Tires, garbage, dirty diapers, really anything that fits through the door gets burned around my area. Burning wafer or particle board puts out a nasty emission.

Same thing here when we get weather inversions the whole country stinks up from OWB smoke.

 

[KenLockett]

sounds to me like the folks aren't using the OWB for the purpose intended if they are burning all the items you mention above. Unfortunately gives all wood burners a bad name and reputation this being a case in point. Unfortunately some appear to use their OWB as a trash incinerator it would seem.