Parallax, if you're smelling smoke in the house, there are definitely some things you can do to eliminate it. This is my 4th year with a wood stove. The first year, I had the whiffs of smoke. I don't want any smoke in my house and there is none now. This is what I learned in the 4 years... Start your fires with a fire starter, not newspaper. Use small kindling with no bark...bark smokes. Loading on an appropriate size coal bed is always desirable. Always open the flu and turn off the fan before opening the door. Open door slowly. The following was hardest for members of my family to change. They wanted to get in there and adjust the logs or add more wood instead of waiting to the end of the cycle. Open the door when there is a flame to adjust things, you'll probably get smoke in the room, wait till coal stage, it's unlikely. Wet wood has more smoke problems. While you're getting to a totally smoke free condition, get an air purifier for the stove room. They work very well for clearing the air quickly and leaving no trace of smoke. Check outside at different times and look at your chimney to see if you're burning clean. Make adjustments til you are. In my book, there should be no smoke smell in the house or outside and if there is, something has to be remedied.
Respiratory Dangers from Wood Smoke
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Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
TheRambler: "Also the idea that people used to die really young ie around 40 is a myth. Do some real research into it and you will see that lots of people lived to well beyond 60. Many cases of people living into their 70s and even 80s and beyond. It was about hygiene and a active life style. The more "well off" you were the longer you lived closer to todays average. Modern medicine has Only had a small impact in longevity in the grand scheme of things. If the average person in the medieval ages had better hygiene they probably would outlive the average person today.
Look around, it is still very common for people to die in their 60s and 70s."
Yes, sir! It is probably true that the life expectancy in 1800 was 40 years. However, this figure is misleading.
Two of my frontier heroes were Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. They both lived to be about 85 years old. These guys fought Indians, got shot by arrows and bullets, got broken legs etc etc.
Yet they lived well past the life expectancy of the average male today, which is about 78 years.
In 1800, if the 20 year old man got shot in the belly by a Shawnee arrow, he died 3 days later from peritonitis. If an 18 year old kid caught pneumonia in 1918, he died.That is what happened to my great-uncle, William Penwell. Penicillin hadn't been invented yet. These days, pneumonia is easily cured by antibiotics.
So that, medical problems which, today, are easily cured by modern medicine, caused an early, and painful death a hundred, or two hundred years ago.
You can rest assured that Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone were exposed to wood smoke every day of their lives, by the primitive fireplaces in their frontier log cabins.
The guys in the old times did not have the advantage of modern medicine, but they also did not have the drawbacks of modern living, such as, possible mercury poisoning from seafood, inhalation of toxins from coal fired electric plants, or ingestion of lead from eating lead-soaked paint chips. Did you know that asthma did not exist until 1814? Asthma was first diagnosed in London in that year. London was the center of the industrial revolution. All the factories in London burned coal, and all the homes in London burned coal for heat. Remember Scrooge In "A Christmas Carol?"
Asthma was caused by coal fired air pollution.
The person in the old days also ate only all organic food, not laden with pesticides.
I believe that a person in the old days, if they did not die young from trauma, lived to be older than the person does today. And, they were probably healthier.
The many deaths in the old days of young men, dying of trauma, or of women dying in childbirth, skewed the statistics of average life expectancy downwar.
Look around, it is still very common for people to die in their 60s and 70s."
Yes, sir! It is probably true that the life expectancy in 1800 was 40 years. However, this figure is misleading.
Two of my frontier heroes were Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. They both lived to be about 85 years old. These guys fought Indians, got shot by arrows and bullets, got broken legs etc etc.
Yet they lived well past the life expectancy of the average male today, which is about 78 years.
In 1800, if the 20 year old man got shot in the belly by a Shawnee arrow, he died 3 days later from peritonitis. If an 18 year old kid caught pneumonia in 1918, he died.That is what happened to my great-uncle, William Penwell. Penicillin hadn't been invented yet. These days, pneumonia is easily cured by antibiotics.
So that, medical problems which, today, are easily cured by modern medicine, caused an early, and painful death a hundred, or two hundred years ago.
You can rest assured that Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone were exposed to wood smoke every day of their lives, by the primitive fireplaces in their frontier log cabins.
The guys in the old times did not have the advantage of modern medicine, but they also did not have the drawbacks of modern living, such as, possible mercury poisoning from seafood, inhalation of toxins from coal fired electric plants, or ingestion of lead from eating lead-soaked paint chips. Did you know that asthma did not exist until 1814? Asthma was first diagnosed in London in that year. London was the center of the industrial revolution. All the factories in London burned coal, and all the homes in London burned coal for heat. Remember Scrooge In "A Christmas Carol?"
Asthma was caused by coal fired air pollution.
The person in the old days also ate only all organic food, not laden with pesticides.
I believe that a person in the old days, if they did not die young from trauma, lived to be older than the person does today. And, they were probably healthier.
The many deaths in the old days of young men, dying of trauma, or of women dying in childbirth, skewed the statistics of average life expectancy downwar.
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All of the depends on lots of things lots died from disease also. And if you lived in a city the smoke caused lots of problems in the country not so much. And yes if you had the money or land and ability to eat well you could live a long healthy life but there were also allot of hungry people and lots were pretty cold in the winter to. Those old fireplaces didnt heat very well either
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