The Bay Area Air District has issued a Winter Spare the Air Alert for Monday, November 24, 2008, which bans wood burning both indoors and outdoors through noon tomorrow.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to burn wood in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, and outdoor fire-pits. 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.

You will receive an AirAlert email each day that a Winter Spare the Air Alert is in effect.

Winter air pollution is mainly caused by small particle pollution or particulate matter (PM) 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 1-877-4-NO-BURN.

There is NO free transit program during the winter Spare the Air season.

To see the current air quality forecast, visit www.sparetheair.org

Thank you for doing your part to Spare the Air!

This AirAlert is provided by your Bay Area Air Quality Management

District.