'Missing' 

Editor:

A health-related topic that's important to Humboldt County was missing from the Jan. 18 "Health and Wellness" issue.

The U.S. Census has recognized Humboldt as being among the top counties in the country for use of wood heating. This is, without a doubt, creating a serious public health problem here, but it goes unrecognized.

A large, and growing, body of research makes it clear that this widespread reliance on wood stoves contributes to our concerning health statistics. The fine particles and toxins emitted by wood stoves have been linked to a wide variety of serious health outcomes.

Awareness here — not just in Humboldt, but nationwide — is still low, but it's growing elsewhere. For example, the cover of the Jan. 15 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia states, "Wood heaters and health: Cozy but pernicious." This accompanies a peer-reviewed study inside that recommends a phaseout of wood stoves in Australia based on their link to premature deaths. 

It's a difficult topic to talk about here. But when we discuss our county's public health challenges, we need to include wood burning.

There's information about the MJA study on the website of Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution: dsawsp.org/resources/blog.

Ellen Golla, Trinidad