Residential Wood Combustion in Germany: A Twin-Site Study of Local Village Contributions to Particulate Pollutants and Their Potential Health Effects

Abstract

Residential wood combustion contributing to airborne particulate matter (PM₁₀) was studied for 1 year at two sites in the village of Melpitz. Significant excess pollution was observed at the Melpitz center compared to that at the TROPOS research station Melpitz reference site, situated only 700 m away. Local concentration increments at the village site for the combustion PM constituents organic carbon, elemental carbon, levoglucosan, and benzo[a]pyrene were determined under appropriate wind directions, and their winter mean values were 0.7 μg m^–3, 0.3 μg m^–3, 0.1 μg m^–3, and 0.4 ng m^–3, representing relative increases over the regional background concentration of 24, 70, 61, and 107%, respectively. Yearly, weekly, and diurnal profiles of village increments suggest residential heating as the dominant source of this excess pollution, mainly originating from wood combustion. Receptor modeling using positive matrix factorization quantified 4.5 μg m^–3 wood combustion PM at the village site, representing an increment of 1.9 μg m^–3 and an increase of ∼75% over the 2.6 μg m^–3 regional background wood combustion PM. This increment varied with season, temperature, and boundary layer height and reached daily mean values of 4–6 μg m^–3 during unfavorable meteorological conditions. Potential health effects were estimated and resulted in an all-cause mortality from short-term exposure to wood combustion PM of 2.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and year for areas with similar wood smoke levels as observed in Melpitz. The excess cancer risk from the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was 6.4 per 100,000. For both health metrics, the very local contributions from the village itself were about 40–50%, indicating a strong potential for mitigation through local-scale policies. A compilation of literature data demonstrates wood combustion to represent a major source of PM pollution in Germany, with average winter-time contributions of 10–20%. The present study quantifies the negative impacts of heating with wood in rural residential areas, where the continuous monitoring of air quality is typically lacking. Further regulation of this PM source is warranted in order to protect human health.