TIL a single backyard smoker can put out as much fine particle pollution as a diesel truck idling for an hour

Read it in a study from the EPA's website last night and now I'm wondering if my neighbors hate me for running my WSM every weekend.

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_schmidt971mo ago

Heard something similar on NPR a while back actually. They were talking about how wood smoke has some of the same nasty stuff in it as diesel exhaust, like those tiny particles that get deep in your lungs. Makes sense when you think about it, both are just burning stuff and dumping it into the air. I still use my charcoal smoker a couple times a month but I try to keep the fire clean with dry wood and not let it smolder too much. Maybe it's just me but I bet most people's neighbors would be more annoyed by the smell of a diesel truck than good barbecue smoke anyway.

cole_robinson1mo ago

@kevin_schmidt97 I'd push back a little on this. Wood smoke from a clean burning fire is nothing like diesel exhaust in practice. Diesel has all sorts of heavy metals and sulfur compounds that wood doesn't have. Plus the particle size distribution is totally different. Wood smoke particles are actually way bigger on average, so they don't get nearly as deep into your lungs as diesel particulates do. It's the ultra fine stuff from diesel that's the real problem, not backyard barbecue smoke.