Wood smoke adds billions to health bill, says Australian report

[Emily]

http://www.portstephensexaminer.com.au/news/national/national/environment/wood-smoke-adds-billions-to-health-bill-says-report/2435699.aspx?storypage=0

Wood smoke adds billions to health bill, says report
BEN CUBBY
28 Jan, 2012 03:00 AM

THE smoky haze from wood fires is Sydney's biggest source of air pollution in winter, and wood smoke will add $8 billion to the health budget by 2030, says an independent report commissioned by the state government and kept secret for six months.

One of the options put forward by the report, produced by the environmental consultancy AECOM, is a tax on wood fuel that which would keep the cost of burning wood rising in line with the federal government's carbon price...

The downside of taxing the wood fuel sales from observations here in the US is that more people might start burning scrap wood that can contain chemicals and heavy metals even more toxic than wood smoke itself. That's extremely dangerous in urban/suburban areas to neighbors, but almost impossible to regulate if wood burning is allowed in those areas at all.