Time for change

Re: “Outdoor wood boilers raising pollution concerns” (BDN, Dec. 10). While I am glad I do not live near any outdoor boilers, I sometimes wonder about the quality of the air from ordinary wood stoves. Your story confirmed for me what I had been thinking – why burn wood at all?

Just compare the numbers in the article: outdoor boilers can emit up to 300 grams of particulate matter, or soot, per hour; the newer wood stoves, if in federal compliance, can emit up to 7.5 grams hourly; and oil or gas can emit less than 0.02 grams per hour.

Those boilers can be 150,000 times dirtier. And even “dirty” oil can be 375 times cleaner than a wood stove.

Yes, Maine, the unthinkable is becoming the necessary. It is beyond tradition or culture now, let’s stop burning wood.

Paul Sheridan

Monroe