Spare the Air Alert -
A message from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD)
A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been issued for Tuesday through Friday, November 13 - 16, in the Bay Area.
Wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors on Tuesday through Friday, for the full 24 hours.
Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents to burn wood or other solid fuels in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire-pits, or other wood-burning devices. This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties. (Visit www.sparetheair.org/Stay-Informed/Todays-Air-Quality/Reporting-Zones.aspx to see if your city is located within the Air District.)
Winter air pollution is mainly caused by particulates or soot pollution from wood smoke. Smoke from wood-burning fires is linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and is especially harmful for children and the elderly.
For more information about the Wood Burning Rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4NO-BURN.
You can also call 1-800-430-1515 and register to receive automatic phone calls when a Winter Spare the Air Alert has been called.
To sign up for text alerts, text the word “START” to 817-57.
To see the current air quality forecast visit www.sparetheair.org.
Download our FREE Spare the Air iPhone/Android application for alert notifications, local air quality forecasts, podcasts and several tools to help reduce air pollution.
Thank you for doing your part to Spare the Air!
If you want more information on the air quality forecast, or other aspects of the local air quality program, please contact your local air quality agency using the information above. For more information on the U.S. EPA's AIRNow Program, visit http://www.airnow.gov.
The Air District issues a daily air quality forecast that predicts air pollution levels for the coming five-day period. This forecast uses the U.S. EPA's Air Quality Index scale.
For forecasting purposes, cities in the Bay Area have been divided into five reporting zones. The cities within each reporting zone are listed here. Corte Madera is listed in the Coast and Central Bay region. Please note that USG means "Unsafe for Sensitive Groups"
