Which affects air quality more--wood burning or vented gas fireplaces and why?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 17 Apr 2003 16:32 PDT

Do you mean indoor air quality, outdoor air quality, or both?  (I
assume indoor air quality, but I want to make sure.)

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Clarification of Question by talltwin-ga on 18 Apr 2003 07:04 PDT

Indoor and outdoor.  Also, please credit sources as to where information was found.

For the same number of BTUs the wood burning fireplace (probably even
with a catalytic converter) damages air quality more. Which would be
used more? I would guess the gas fireplace, so the total pollution is
likely more. Wood burning fireplaces have been in common use for at
least 1000 years so they are grandfathered in. Are catalytic
converters required on wood burning stoves and fireplaces in your
locale?  If not, when a wood fire is burning poorly, significant
amounts of carbon monoxide, soot, mythyl alcohol, turpentine and many
other organic compounds are released at the top of the chimney. Other
than carbon dioxide and water vapor a typical gas fireplace produces
very little pollution. Poorly operating the gas fireplace can produce
dangerous amounts of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons.   Neil

Please credit references as to where information was gathered.

My educated guess is that wood burning is more polluting than gas.

Claudietta