Gabriola Island Clean Air Society

Here's another excellent example of how wood burning for home heating pollutes a neighbourhood. Look at how clean the air is in most other locations. Our sensor on Jolly Brothers Road on Gabriola Island went into the hazardous zone, and the see-saw pattern is wood burning without a doubt.

There are lots of ways to look at measurements for air pollution and different time frames that people and regulators look at. If we look at the weekly average  for particulate at the PM 2.5 scale across several PurpleAir sensors, some interesting and troubling trends become evident. Here are some 7 day averages from a sample of sensors in British Columbia and one wild card sensor - downtown Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium. LA is known around the world for the poor quality of its air. Here's what we see. The worst weekly average in Canada can be found in Prince George BC with 16.06. Prince George has an active pulp and paper mill, other significant sources of industrial pollution, and lots of people who burn wood for residential heating. In Parksville we see a weekly average of 10.85. This is mostly a retirement community on Vancouver Island and the readings from this sensor are likely due fully to wood smoke emissions from residential sources. One of our sensor...

Wood smoke will be BC Lung's tainted blood scandal one day. Tainted air!

Wood smoke is the new second-hand cigarette smoke. This article and television news clip makes some excellent points. To read the article and view the video click here .

If you moved to the "country" for clean air and a healthy lifestyle it's time to rethink things. Right now air quality on Gabriola Island is mosty in the warning zone due to wood burning appliances like woodstoves and fireplaces with air quality readings of over 100. By contrast downtown Vancouver at rush hour is in the 50s and downtown Victoria is in the teens.

We have a very serious wood smoke problem here on Gabriola Island, and there is no doubt that almost 100% of the problem is due to individuals burning wood at home for residential heating. Here's a snapshot from 10:30AM on October 10, 2016, of a new sensor in the Pat Burns area. This level of particulate matter exposure is very hazardous. Note the other readings in the region, especially the sensor only 400m away (as the crow flies) with a reading of 7 at the same time.

As of today, Gabriola Island BC probably has the highest concentration of air quality monitors in the world. Our non-profit uses 8 PurpleAir sensors to provide real time data for an island of 14km by 4km in size with a full time population of around 4000. Why so many? The island has simultaneously some of the world's best and worst air quality, and it can vary from block to block based on the concentration and frequency of residential wood burning activities. To see our sensors go here .