ENVIRONMENT : Health Concerns May Put Damper on Woodsmoke : Cities in West are acting to lessen exposure to its dangerous chemicals.

Last summer, a federal judge, acting on a filing by respiratory therapist Susan West, banned woodcutting for domestic use in a 516,000-acre section of the Wenatchee National Forest until the U.S. Forest Service studies the health effects of woodsmoke.

It was the most dramatic event so far in a campaign, led by West and others, to bring attention to health hazards of burning wood for heat. Communities across the West are rapidly adopting ordinances, banning burning, regulating wood stove sales and taking other steps to limit woodsmoke, even from cozy corner stoves on winter days.

“We’re not just a bunch of crazy environmentalists,” said West, a member of the governor’s task force that drafted Washington state’s stringent laws regulating woodburning. “The health risks are proven.”

Besides the visual pollution evident in the low-hanging inversions on still winter days, woodsmoke contains some of the most-feared chemicals known to man: carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, arsenic and formaldehyde, among others.

“There’s a lot of strange compounds formed by burning wood that are considered carcinogenic,” said Noel Bonderson, an air quality specialist for Placer County, Calif., where a 1986 ordinance limiting one heating appliance per home in Squaw Valley was an early regulatory effort.

The American Lung Assn. in Washington state receives hundreds of complaints each winter from people whose asthma, emphysema or bronchitis conditions are exacerbated when wood stoves are in use. And respiratory specialists like West chart rising hospital admissions when more smoke billows from chimneys.

The surge in woodburning during the back-to-nature movement of the late ‘60s has ebbed, in part because woodsmoke has become a dirty word. Wood stove sales are down 30% in Washington. One store, Fireplace Plus in Smokey Point, used to sell 25 stoves a month; now it’s 10, said owner Donna Haines. But smoke nevertheless pours forth in winter, especially in cold mountain communities, prompting a variety of responses:

--Denver residents, irritated and confused that burning bans were rarely imposed although ugly inversions hung for days, created their own standard, effective Nov. 1. The law, established after 220 residents analyzed chemical slides, could ban burning for 50 days this winter--about five times more than in previous years, said John Leary, a Colorado Health Department deputy director.

--In Mammoth Lakes, Calif., an ordinance enacted Dec. 8 outlaws woodburning when air quality is low and restricts installation of stoves to those approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

--Moscow, Ida., recently acquired a nephelometer to measure woodsmoke pollution and will mount the device on a van for use in residential neighborhoods, looking for violators of the year-old law against inefficient stoves. Thirty miles away in Lewiston, two firefighters just returned from EPA training in visually detecting faulty stoves.

--In Fresno, a Nov. 30 ordinance bans wood stoves and fireplaces in new apartments and limits new single-family homes to two stoves.

--Threatened with mandatory EPA regulations if woodsmoke particulate emissions did not decrease dramatically, Libby, Mont., on Nov. 1 enacted a three-pronged approach, including requiring permits for wood stoves in all dwellings.

--Public hearings begin Jan. 15 in Alpine, Mono and Inyo counties in eastern California to gauge sentiment for the Great Basin Air Pollution Control District’s proposal to set chimney-top smoke density levels.

While communities across the West are writing new regulations, officials concede that enforcement has been tempered, so far.

Air quality won’t improve significantly until woodburners’ feet are held to the fire and forced, through fines and other enforcement means, to reduce burning, says Randy Vannoy, a chimney-sweep in Missoula, Mont.

Vannoy was a critic a decade ago when Missoula began adopting rules to cope with its notorious inversion. Today, Missoula has a three-tiered fine system, requires biennial inspection of stoves, uses a toll-free line with burn-ban information, requires permits for stoves and imposes other stringent measures.

By most accounts, Missoula’s air has improved.

And Vannoy now is profiting by helping enforce the laws he once opposed. For instance, he earns $25 for each stove he inspects.