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California Community Bans Wood-Burning Fireplace

Aired July 2, 2000 - 7:20 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: The old fashioned wood-burning fireplace, an endangered species because it pollutes, has now been banned in a California community.

CNN's Amber Lee has the details on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMBER LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The wood-burning fire, a traditional symbol of hearth and home, may soon be a thing of the past, at least in western U.S. cities. San Jose, California recently passed what's called a wood-smoke ordinance to improve air quality, one of two dozen cities to do so. Officials say smoke from traditional wood-burning fireplaces is a major source of pollution, accounting for 40 percent of pollutants in the air during the winter.

TERRY LEE, BAY AREA AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT: There are voluminous health studies in the United States that show when particulate levels are higher there are increased hospital visits and, in fact, increased mortality.

LEE (on camera): The San Jose ordinance gives newly built homes three options. The first is a natural gas fire place, such as this one.

(voice-over): The other two options are clean-burning, EPA- certified wood or pellet fireplaces.

LINDA LEZOTTE, SAN JOSE CITY COUNCIL: You can still get the crackle and the look of a fireplace. The only thing you don't get necessarily is the smell of wood.

LEE: But the spokesman for the trade association representing the fireplace industry says the law is unfair.

JOHN CROUCH, HEARTH PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION: That there are clean- burning, clean, low-emission wood fireplaces that could have been part of this process and were not.

TOM CORBETT, CONTRACTOR: These are actually -- these are fire blocks. And these are typical in any of these, as we say, zero (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fire box.

LEE: Other critics of the ordinance say the new law doesn't do enough to prevent pollution because it exempts existing homes with fireplaces. Tom Corbett, a fireplace contractor, says the wood fire may soon be history.

CORBETT: I think you're going to see more and more going to the gas situation, the artificial, fake fireplace. And the aroma and everything of wood burning may be a thing of, you know, the past.

LEE: Air quality experts say these types of laws are especially critical in California, where the population continues to boom, and that putting out wood fires is a big step toward protecting the environment.

Amber Lee for CNN, San Jose, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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