Dangers of Wood Smoke
At Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), we believe clean air is a human right—indoors and outdoors. Wood smoke is a serious and too often overlooked threat to public health. Whether it comes from a crackling fireplace inside a home or a prescribed burn in a nearby forest, wood smoke is among the most dangerous types of air pollution we are exposed to.
Wood smoke may carry the scent of nostalgia, but it also carries carcinogens, ultra-fine particles, and toxic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde. These pollutants can trigger heart attacks, worsen asthma, damage children’s lungs, and even shorten lives. Yet wood burning remains commonplace in homes and is increasingly promoted as a wildfire mitigation strategy in our public lands.
UPHE works to reduce the public’s exposure to wood smoke in all forms. From helping families swap out wood-burning fireplaces, to standing up against outdated forest management strategies, to educating doctors and the public alike—we are fighting for cleaner air and healthier communities.
Our Work on Wood Smoke
🔗 Health Impacts of Wood Smoke
Learn more about the dangerous health effects of wood smoke pollution—including heart disease, asthma, and early death—and why no level of exposure is truly safe.
🔗 Doctors Against Wood Smoke
We work closely with Doctors Against Wood Smoke, a group of health professionals focused on spreading awareness about the dangers of residential wood burning and pushing for healthier alternatives.
🔗 Burn Smart Fireplace Swap Program
In partnership with Summit County, UPHE helped dozens of households transition from wood-burning fireplaces to cleaner heating sources, reducing neighborhood-level pollution and improving local air quality.
🔗 Challenging Forest Service Fire Practices
UPHE is standing up against misguided wildfire mitigation strategies like slash pile burning and landscape-scale prescribed burns, which often do more harm than good. These burns emit massive quantities of PM2.5 and other toxins, polluting the air we all share.
Why It Matters
Indoor wood burning—from fireplaces or wood stoves—may feel cozy, but the smoke it releases is a major source of indoor and neighborhood air pollution. If you can smell it, you’re breathing it. Children, the elderly, and people with existing heart or lung issues are especially vulnerable.
Outdoor burns, including those set intentionally by land management agencies, release large volumes of smoke that can travel miles. And despite claims of fire prevention, research increasingly shows that prescribed burns often do little to stop severe wildfires—while significantly increasing public exposure to air pollution.
A Public Health Approach
UPHE approaches wood smoke as a public health crisis. Trees are nature’s air filters; cutting them down and burning them in the name of forest “thinning” strips us of that protection and releases more pollution into the air.
We call for science-based forest policies, clean heating alternatives in homes, and stronger regulations that prioritize human health.
