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Explora: Environment
and Resource Leaf burning air pollution

4. Conclusion better soil and promotes significantly better plant growth
and health as compared to regions which burn leaves,
Much more clinical, research and legal attention is needed brush, and other vegetative wastes.
to understand the health hazards of exposure to leaf and
other biomass burning, ways to reduce exposure, and Leaf burning bans can be quite useful in reducing
approaches to treating biomass burning-related health air pollution, especially in densely populated urban and
49
effects. Several papers have commented that there is still a suburban areas. The compost produced can be used in many
lot of uncertainty in estimating biomass emissions rates and beneficial ways, including application in parklands and in
in describing the similarities and differences in emissions gardens of community, school, religious organization or
produced by various forms of biomass burning (wildfire, prison.
wood, peat, leaf, grass, etc.). 2,25,82 Although most of the
research on biomass burning has centered around wood Acknowledgments
burning and wildfire burning, the burning of leaves, grass, The author thanks the researchers and the subject of the
brush and trash is also an important source of PM and studies which he had reviewed and cited.
2.5
other pollutants, warranting more extensive investigations.
Leaf burning is often especially dangerous for at least Funding
three reasons: (i) the pollutants released at ground level, None.
(ii) burning that often occurs in densely populated urban
and suburban areas, and (iii) leaf burning that often occurs Conflict of interest
in mid-fall when temperature inversions are common
and rapid dispersion of the air pollutants is prevented. The author declares that he has no competing interests.
Since wildfire burning produces somewhat similar toxic
emissions as those produced by leaf burning, and since Author contributions
wildfire burning is associated with a significantly greater This is a single-authored article.
risk of many respiratory, cardiovascular, psychological,
infectious, and pregnancy/birth conditions, as well as Ethics approval and consent to participate
cancers, it is possible that further research could link leaf Not applicable.
burning to increased risk of many of these health conditions
that have already been linked to wildfire burning. Further Consent for publication
studies on leaf burning and other biomass burning should
probably measure and cite levels of temperature and Not applicable.
moisture since these two factors probably play a major Availability of data
role in determining emissions of carbon monoxide and
particulates. All data were based on the already published articles.
The burning of leaves, wood, and forests produce References
significant quantities of nanoparticles or particles smaller
than 100 nm. Such smaller particles are often much more 1. Carpenter A, Tue D, Stanek E. Leaf burning as a significant
83
toxic than an equivalent mass of larger particles. The source of urban air pollution. J Air Pollut Control Assoc.
83
study of nanoparticles produced by leaf burning and other 1977;27:874-876.
forms of biomass burning might yield useful information doi: 10.1080/00022470.1977.10470459
in estimating harmful effects of biomass smoke. 2. Noblet C, Besombes JL, Lemire M, et al. Emission factors

It would be interesting to undertake more studies and chemical characterization of particulate emissions
measuring multiple chemicals in outdoor air to profile from garden green waste burning. Sci Total Environ.
the various contributions of individual types of biomass 2021;798:149367.
burning, such as wildfires, wood burning, leaf burning, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149367
peat burning, straw burning, trash burning, and tobacco/ 3. EPA. USA EPA-National Ambient Air Quality Standards
cannabis smoking. (NAAQS) for PM or Particvulates; 2024. p. 1-8. Available
Community leaf and food waste composting systems from: https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/national-ambient-
can be very helpful in reducing air pollution and producing air-quality-standards-naaqs-pm
high-quality compost. More research should be conducted 4. Calderón-Garcidueñas L, Ayala A, Mukherjee PS. United
on how to produce high-quality compost and how the long- States elections: Air pollution, neurodegeneration,
term use of high-quality compost produces significantly neuropsychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Who

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2024) 6 doi: 10.36922/eer.4040