The Health Hazards of Burning Leaves

Well, its leaf season, and I'm sure many of you out there have already burned a few piles of leaves. While this practice is very common, it may not be in your best interest.

The smoke generated by a large number of simultaneous leaf fires can cause significant health problems. Leaf smoke can irritate the eyes, nose and throat of healthy adults. But it can be much more harmful to small children, the elderly, and people with asthma or other lung or heart diseases.

This is because the visible smoke from leaf fires is made up almost entirely of tiny particles that can reach deep into lung tissue and cause symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, chest pain and shortness of breath--symptoms that might not occur until several days after exposure to large amounts of leaf smoke.

Besides being an irritant, leaf smoke contains many hazardous chemicals, including carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide binds with hemoglobin in the bloodstream and thus reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and lungs. So carbon monoxide can be very dangerous for young children with immature lungs, the elderly, and people with chronic heart or lung diseases.

According to EPA studies, concentrations of air pollutants resulting from leaf burning can be so high that the air does not meet federal health standards. In fact, in some areas burning of leaves and brush sometimes causes much higher levels of air pollution than all other forms of air pollution combined.

Leaf burning can also reduce visibility, create safety hazards, cause a nuisance, soil buildings and other property, and create additional demands on local police and fire protection.

Even though leaf burning may be legal, it is not a good way to dispose of fallen leaves. Instead of burning your leaves, you can: compost leaves and plant clippings; reduce the volume of leaves significantly by shredding them before composting; chip brush and clean wood to make mulch or decorative chips.

Billy Skaggs Agricultural Agent Hall County Extension Coordinator 734 East Crescent Drive Gainesville, GA 30501 Phone:(770)531-6988 Fax: (770)531-3994 Email: [email protected]