ADEQ and the Maricopa County Air Quality Department (MCAQD) encourage residents and businesses to work together to improve air quality by choosing cleaner alternatives to burning wood — Burn Cleaner, Burn Better.

How Smoke Affects Your Health

Smoke from wood-burning fireplaces and outdoor chimineas, as well as ground-level consumer fireworks, pose a serious health risk to the elderly, children with asthma and people with heart and lung conditions. Tiny particles in wood smoke (also known as PM _2.5) are about 30 times smaller than a human hair and can be absorbed into the blood stream where they lower lung function, exacerbate bronchitis and asthma and can even lead to severe health effect such as heart attacks.

Air Quality Forecasts

ADEQ issues a Health Watch or High Pollution Advisory (HPA) when our air quality forecasts expect conditions to create unhealthy levels of smoke. During these times, MCAQD will issue a No Burn Day. On No Burn Days, you can’t use a wood-burning fireplace or burn wood outdoors, but you can Burn Cleaner, Burn Better. Download the CleanAirMakeMore app on your mobile device to find out when it’s a No Burn Day | Download Now >

How Can You Help?

Instead of burning wood, choose any of several alternatives, such as electric, natural gas and fireplace retrofit devices that cause little to no emissions. Other cleaner selections include Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-certified woodstoves, pellet stoves and oil furnaces. See how pollution produced by these heat sources compares | View Now > 

Share how you are helping keep our air clean and our neighbors healthy on social media by using the hashtag #BurnCleanerBurnBetter 

Learn more about how you can Burn Cleaner, Burn Better | View Now >

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