Three monitors will track levels of particulate matter in Cumberland air as a result of wood smoke, with real-time data being uploaded online for public viewing. Photo: Heather Watson / CHLY 101.7 FM

The Village of Cumberland selected three volunteer households to install air quality monitors, funded by the BC Lung Foundation through the CVRD.

The monitors will track levels of particulate matter in the air as a result of wood smoke, with real-time data being uploaded online for public viewing.

Courtney Simpson is the Director of Development and Bylaw at the Village of Cumberland, and she spoke to CHLY and CVOX about the need to monitor air quality in the Village.

“We have found that in the Comox Valley, smoke from wood stoves and fireplaces is the most significant source of air pollution because there's often frequent temperature inversions and calm winds in the winter when people are burning wood as their primary source of heat,” Simpson said.

According to Simpson, the municipalities in the Comox Valley are working together through the CVRD to make use of a five thousand dollar grant from the BC Lung Foundation to monitor air quality in the valley.

“By having these air monitors around the community,” Simpson said, “we can look at real time data to see when the air quality is better or worse. Is it the morning? Is it the evening? [Different] times of year and how it relates to the weather that day.”

Cumberland was allocated three monitors from the grant funds, and chose general areas for each based on a local resident’s observations and recommendations. Once the Village advertised the opportunity to “adopt” an air quality monitor, Simpson said the response was quick and significant.

“We posted the request for volunteer citizen scientists on a Friday, and we came back to a lot of emails on Monday; it was oversubscribed,” Simpson shared. “People were really enthusiastic and excited about having one of these at their house!”

Simpson said the Village of Cumberland has been working to improve air quality.

“For years, efforts have been made in the Comox Valley and in Cumberland to reduce this wood smoke. One really successful project has been wood stove rebates,” she said.

Simpson said that the program allows residents to change out their old wood stoves for newer and more efficient models that burn cleaner, and receive a government rebate.

According to Simpson, other measures involve educating local residents about reducing particulates in the air by burning clean, dry wood. She also said that while no one is required to remove an existing wood stove in an existing house, in Cumberland new houses cannot have wood stoves added.

Simpson believes monitoring the air quality in Cumberland over time, alongside partners at the Regional District and in Courtenay, could lead to more specifically targeted educational campaigns in the neighbourhoods with higher particulate numbers.

“I think it can help build awareness of people living in those areas and to see what they can do with their own wood burning to bring that number down,” she said.

Simpson noted that air quality differs drastically between neighbourhoods, making these Cumberland monitors significant.

“Well, I think that collecting the data is new and exciting because now we will have data specific to our location,” she says. “Before this, we were relying on more generalized data over a larger area of the Comox Valley to say that there's an air quality problem, but we didn't know neighbourhood by neighbourhood what the problem is.”

Simpson hopes that the excitement will continue, and the volunteer monitor hosts will keep their monitors connected and maintained.

“I hope that these enthusiastic citizen scientists will maintain [the monitors] and be able to collect data for many years,” she says.

Dr. Charmaine Enns, Medical Health Officer for the North Island, went into more detail about the risks of exposure to wood smoke pollution, and the greater impact within valleys.

According to Dr. Enns, PM 2.5 refers to the size of the particulate matter, which are 2.5 microns or smaller. Enns said ten of those would make the diameter of a strand of hair.

“That's how small it is,” Enns said. “And those small particulates that are a result of burning wood especially [are] one of the many pollutants in that combustion process. But it can go deep into the lungs and particulate matter that gets breathed in, which we all do is we breathe, [causing] direct impact within the lungs themselves.”

Dr. Enns said this is especially a problem for more vulnerable citizens, such as the elderly, and those with underlying chronic conditions like lung diseases.

“But indirectly it has a systemic inflammatory response,” Enns said, “which puts people at risk of heart disease, heart attacks, [and] increasing blood pressure.”

Enns attested that air quality has long been an important topic for many valley communities on Vancouver Island, including Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, and Port Alberni.

“And that's because [of] the geography and the topography of living in a valley with inversions, in the wintertime especially, that prevent air pollutants from escaping,” Enns said. “It could basically just kind of trap them in the valley.”

Enns also said however, that there has been improvement in particulate records over the last decade.

“Over the last decade, I'm very encouraged to see the progressive trend downwards in PM 2.5 in the Comox Valley,” Enns said. “That's not to say the work is done, but I think we need to recognize things that are going in the right direction, and it's going in the right direction. And that’s thanks to everybody who is contributing to that, because I think that benefits the whole population.”

Residents who are interested in learning more about air quality in the Comox Valley can find more information on the CVRD website, or view the live data for themselves at PurpleAir.com.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with CVOX.