Preface

Health effects assessment of exposure to particles from wood smoke

In recent years there has been an increased awareness regarding the health effects linked to pollution with particulate matter in the air. Special funds have been allocated to further research and development in this area by the Danish EPA. This project is a contribution to this work and the focus in this report is to assess human hazards and health impacts in connection with wood smoke emissions, as emissions from wood burning by far constitutes the largest source to the overall particulate matter emissions in Denmark.

The report has been prepared by Elsa Nielsen (Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark), Marianne Dybdahl (Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark – until 30 June 2005), and Poul Bo Larsen (Danish Environmental Protection Agency), as a contract work for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

The work has been followed by a Steering Committee:

Steffen Loft, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen.
Marianne Glasius, The National Environmental Research Institute and Aarhus University.
Håkan Wallin, The National Institute of Occupational Health.
Elsa Nielsen, Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.
Mona-Lise Binderup, Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.
John Christian Larsen, Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.
Poul Bo Larsen, Chairman, Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
Christian Lange Fogh, Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
Rasmus Brandt-Lassen, Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

The authors are solely responsible for all the assessments and conclusions presented in the report, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the involved institutions.

The authors want to thank the Steering Committee who has contributed to the work with professional expertise, proposals and criticism during the drafting of the report.

We also want to thank Lars Dragsted (Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark – until 31 December 2006) for his valuable comments during the drafting of the report.

Finally we would like to thank the Danish Environmental Protection Agency for the financial support.