Posted: 12/10/2008

The Bay Area Air District has issued a Winter Spare the Air Alert for Wednesday, December 10, which bans wood burning both indoors and outdoors through noon Thursday, December 11.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to burn wood in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, and outdoor fire-pits. This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties.

Winter air pollution is mainly caused by small particle pollution or particulate matter (PM) from wood smoke. Smoke from wood-burning fires is linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and is especially harmful for children and the elderly.

For more information about the wood burning rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4-NO-BURN.

There is NO free transit program during the winter Spare the Air season.

To see the current air quality forecast, visit www.sparetheair.org

Thank you for doing your part to Spare the Air!