GREECE: An overwhelming amount of Greeks boycott heating fuel to save money and turn to fireplaces to keep warm, spurring warnings by health officials as pollutants fill the air

Record ID: 216981

  • Title: GREECE: An overwhelming amount of Greeks boycott heating fuel to save money and turn to fireplaces to keep warm, spurring warnings by health officials as pollutants fill the air
  • Date: 9th January 2013
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JANUARY 07, 2013) (REUTERS) HOMES IN ATHENS SUBURB TWO HOUSES IN SUBURB WITH THEIR CHIMNEYS SMOKING SMOKE COMING OUT OF CHIMNEY SMOKE COMING OUT OF ANOTHER CHIMNEY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. DIMITRIS ILIOPOULOS OF THE CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, SAYING: "We have some results which show us the levels are three times above the natural level." A
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Health,Economy,People,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA6G4P34XY6MFGNSROMAXR714DY
  • Story Text: Many families in Greece plagued by cutbacks such as wage cuts and job losses due to economic reforms have less to spend each month, prompting many this winter to stop purchasing expensive heating fuel and stock up on wood for fireplaces instead.
    The move however has polluted the skies in Greece with chemicals from wood smoke that is hazardous for people's health.
    Alarms bells went off at the end of December when the Department of Air and Noise Pollution Management of the Ministry of the Environment measured unusually increased levels of air pollutants at air monitoring stations around the capital, higher than the average levels for the winter months.
    The air pollutants - known as "particulate matter" and composed of particles and chemicals - are found in wood smoke and have been connected to respiratory and heart problems. The particles can embed in the lungs. Wood smoke also contains carbon monoxide gas as well as other compounds dangerous for health.
    Over increasing concern for public health, government health and environment officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation and raise public awareness.
    "We have some results which show us the levels are three times above the natural level," said Dr. Dimitris Iliopoulos of the Public Health Department at the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the Greek Ministry of Health.
    Iliopoulos said health risks would increase the longer wood burning continued and Greece's winter will last a few months more.
    "Especially this situation is a serious problem for the younger and elderly population of our country. These people are more vulnerable ...." he said. "This situation is going to be more serious the next two or three months because we expect to have low temperatures and more people we expect to use the fireplaces."
    The Athens horizon has been blanketed with a layer of black haze when fireplaces are in extensive use and the smell of burning wood is overwhelming throughout the Athens vicinity. The problem has also been detected in other parts of Greece such as the colder north.
    The purchase of wood has sparked an explosion in new businesses selling firewood and wood stoves across the country.
    Wood seller Manolis Talarantas says new customers are appearing and asking for wood at his wood barn in an Athens suburb.
    Many, he says have installed wood stoves to heat their homes instead of using heating oil.
    "Many people," he said referring to the new faces that are coming. "And many who have turned off their radiators and are now using only wood stoves to keep warm and only wood for heating."
    Since reform measures were introduced to tackle the economic crisis in 2010 such as continuous cuts to wages, pensions, jobs and benefits, the public's buying power and standard of living has been reduced and driven some people to poverty.
    "Of course I am concerned, but we can not do anything else," said Spirithoula Anavlavy of the health risks as she buys wood at the wood barn. "I am concerned. They should take measures, they should reduce the price of heating oil so people can buy heating oil and not burn wood," she said.
    Pensioner George Asmatoglou said he is is also concerned about the health risks of polluting the air, but he says as an old age pensioner he fears more getting sick from catching a cold without heat in the house.
    "You can also get sick from being cold, being cold is also dangerous, not just air pollutants from wood," he said.
    Despite the sharp drop in heating oil purchases which distributors say has caused their profits to plummet, the price for heating oil has not come down. Heating fuel demand has dropped by as much as 80 percent, according to George Asmatoglou, a member of the fuel merchants association and President of the Gas Station Owners Association.
    Distributors want the tax reduced, but if it does not, he says, a heating oil cash supplement that poor families receive to buy the fuel should be given to more people, because whatever price is set for oil will not be low enough in the midst of the crisis.
    "If the government, if the finance ministry, does not want to reduce the tax, then it should at least provide more benefits and make more (people) legible for the benefits, if it wants Greek families to no longer suffer from the cold," said Asmatoglou.
    Opposition parties have also asked for a reduction of the tax on heating oil, but the government said it has no plans of reducing the tax as it attempts to collect taxes to reform its economy.
    Health authorities said the only solution in the meantime is for the public to limit the burning of wood and find other more ecological methods to keep warm.
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