News

STOP GRASS SEED FIELD BURNING TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH

by Dr. Scott Burgstahler & Dr. Joyce Gilbert, Co-Chairs
Safe Air For Everyone

When smoke from grass seed field burning clogs North Idaho's skies, it damages area residents' health.

The problem is that simple. So is the solution. It's time to end grass seed field burning.

North Idaho physicians see the health impacts of burning every summer. Patients are overcome by smoke and need emergency treatment. Medication use increases. Frantic calls come into doctors' offices from parents seeking help for their children, particularly asthmatic youngsters and those with cystic fibrosis who are severely threatened. People increasingly depend on breathing machines. Some are even forced to flee their homes and businesses until the burning stops.

Beyond our observations and experiences, medical research substantiates the health risks posed by this practice. Scientifically we know:

• Particulate air pollution causes increases in respiratory illness, hospitalization and death. According to the American Lung Association, more than 800 new scientific studies have been documented since 1996.
• Such adverse health effects are related to the very small particles generated by the combustion of organic materials (such as that generated by grass seed field burning), not by larger dust particles, which are filtered through the nose and upper respiratory track.
• Grass seed field smoke contains substances that are known to be harmful and can cause disease.
• The pattern of exposure generated by the burning - intense, repeated exposures over a short period of time - can dangerously increase asthmatic and other respiratory symptoms.
• Our region of the state suffers from higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, creating a population more at risk from the adverse health effects of this kind of air pollution.

There is no reasonable argument about whether the practice of grass seed field burning causes health problems. It certainly does. The question is: What is Idaho going to do about it?

Nothing short of a ban on grass seed field burning will work.

Some believe the voluntary smoke management program, or lowering the standard for unhealthy pollution levels will help, but that has not been the experience in North Idaho, where such a program existed last year. Citizen complaints to the Department of Environmental Quality actually increased under the model "management" program - more than 1,700 calls were received last summer. In 2000, a Rathdrum resident died while "protected" by a voluntary smoke management program.

Smoke can't be "managed." It respects no boundaries.

Some people will claim that the economic impact to grass seed industry is too great - that jobs will be lost if the burning stops.

We believe more lives will be lost if the burning isn't stopped.

In Washington and Oregon, where the practice of open field burning of grass seed crops has been all but eliminated over concern for public health, the grass seed industry continues to thrive. Farmers have found new ways to grow their crops, and both yields per acre overall production have actually increased since these states banned burning of these crops.

We want Idaho grass growers to do the same. We don't want anyone to go out of business or suffer financially. But, a handful of farmers are holding the health of thousands of residents hostage to their profit margins. This simply cannot continue.

Some will call for more studies and other activities to postpone a ban. The medical research is conclusive. Furthermore, over the past 30 years more than $2 million in federal, state and private funds have been spent researching alternatives to burning. The results are in - there's no better proof than a strong competitive industry in other states that don't burn.

To date, more than 700 area residents have joined North Idaho physicians in calling for a grass seed field-burning ban by joining Safe Air For Everyone. The Idaho Medical Association and the American Lung Association Idaho/Nevada Chapter also have joined this coalition.

We urge the legislature, the governor and the state agencies empowered to protect our public health to do so by banning this practice now.

Let's insist the health of our citizens come first.

Dr. Scott Burgstahler is a partner at Internal Medicine Associates, a Sandpoint, Idaho medical office, where he has practiced since 1991. He is certified with the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Joyce Gilbert is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and maintains a private practice in pediatrics in Sandpoint, Idaho.