Wood stoves in Germany shortens lives

BERLIN, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Scientists say fine dust particles from single-room combustion wood-burning stoves and boilers are reducing average German life expectancy.

World Health Organization officials say life expectancy has been shortened in Germany by about 10 months by particles in the air that are known to cause coughs and stress the cardiovascular system, and may cause cancer.

Officials at Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety are concerned a growing portion of fine-dust particles is being produced by the country's 14 million single-room combustion wood-burning stoves and boilers. As of 2004, emissions from domestic heating systems have for the first time exceeded those from road traffic, the scientists say.

A law regulating wood-burners rated at 4 kilowatts or more will go into effect at the end of March. Previously, only systems with more than 15 kilowatts output were affected.

The new limit has spurred development of an accurate device to determine particulate concentration output by wood stoves.

"We have successfully tested a prototype of the new measuring device," Alfred Weber of Clausthal University of Technology in Germany says in a statement. "We conducted numerous tests on wood-burning stoves and were able to prove a linear relationship between the calculated signal received from the device and the mass concentration that was simultaneously measured using a filtering process."