Welcome to WEST, the Woodstove Exchange Study

WEST is a series of linked projects to assess the impacts of a stove exchange program in the Bulkley Valley Lakes District (BVLD) of BC on community air quality and to investigate the potential improvements in health arising from the change to certified wood stoves.

The BC Ministry of Environment (MoE) initiated a woodstove exchange program in the BVLD of BC as part of the air quality management plan for that airshed.  MoE has estimated that 7,200 of the 11,500 homes in the BVLD use wood as the primary heating fuel; 4,200 of those stoves are non-certified (read about EPA certfied and CSA certified stoves and BC regulations).  The goal of the Skeena-BVLD exchange program is to replace all non-certified stoves in the BVLD by 2010. There is now a bylaw requiring the exchange of all conventional stoves in Houston by 2010, and targets for the exchange of stoves in Smithers by 2010 and in Burns Lake by 2012. As of August 2007, a total of 115 stoves had been exchanged (see fall 2007 summary).

News!

May 2012

Air sampling in the Bulkley Valley has wrapped up for another year. As in previous years, we sampled from late fall to late spring. 

May 2011

Air sampling has concluded for this past winter heating season. More sampling is planned for winter 2011/2012

November 2010

Another round of air sampling has begun in the Bulkley Valley. Monitoring will be conducted from this fall into the spring of 2011.

April 2010

The final report for the WEST project is completed. Download a copy of the report here.

December 2009

Preparations are well underway for result letters - a notice will be posted here when result letters are mailed out.

August 2009

The WEST team was at the Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) in Dublin, Ireland. Download our latest presentations.

May 2009

All tests and sampling for the 2008/2009 season are complete. In total, 31 homes were sampled in Houston, Smithers and Telkwa.

Selected results for the 2008/2009 season will be posted here once they are ready.

December 2008

Participant enrollment continues for the 2008/09 winter study. View advertisement.

November 2008

Monitoring is now underway in homes in Houston, Smithers, and Telkwa. If you live in one of these areas, please see the study information letter and consent form that give more details about participating in this winter's study.

This winter, we are investigating the effectiveness of High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters on reducing indoor woodsmoke levels and associated health effects. You do not need to have a wood-burning stove to participate.

June 2008

June 17 2008: Presentations from the WEST Team meeting held in Smithers, BC .

Michael Brauer: WEST overview. View

Curtis Noonan: Libby Woodstove Changeout Study. View

Tony Ward: Woodstove Changeout Results of the Libby, Montana Study. View

Amanda Wheeler: Health Canada’s Priorities under CARA on Indoor Air Quality and Health, and Exposure Assessment. View

Gail Millar: 2007 – 2008 Ambient Sampling. View

Sara Leckie: Residential monitoring. View

Michael Brauer: Assessment of health impacts at the community level. View

Ryan Allen: Assessiing the Impact of Two Wood Stove Interventiions on Indoor Aiir Qualliity and Respiratory Heallth in BC. View

Sverre Vedal: Woodstove exchange study (WEST): study design options for 2009-2011. View

May 2008

May 29, 2008: Gail Millar presented a poster titled The Woodstove Exchange STudy (WEST):Mapping the spatial variability of residential wood smoke at the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Congress in Kelowna, BC. View