(Submitted information from the Georgia Forestry Commission)
Do your summer activities impact the air you breathe?
They can if you drive a car or do some outdoor burning. When particulate matter from vehicles and smoke gets trapped in hot air, it contributes to higher ozone levels, and that’s been linked to lung and heart disease in humans.
To help diminish air issues surrounding ozone pollutants, the Georgia Environmental
Protection Division has instituted an outdoor burn ban every summer since 2005.
While campfires, cooking fires and some agriculture burns are permitted, 54 mostly north and central Georgia counties including Columbia and Richmond do not allow yard and land debris clearing burns from May 1 to September 30. For complete details, visit https://epd.georgia.gov/air-protection-branch/open-
burning-rules-georgia
Debris burning is the leading cause of wildfires in Georgia, accounting for more than half of the state’s wildfires. About 3,500 wildfires occur in Georgia each year.
Georgia law classifies outdoor burning in several categories. In counties such as Burke and McDuffie, which are not included in the outdoor burn ban, the Georgia Forestry Commission reminds residents they must continue to follow specific laws, fire safety guidelines and any local ordinances governing outdoor burning.
The five safety precautions now mandated by law include set spacing between fires and woodlands and
structures, burn times from sunrise to sunset, burner attendance at the fire, and reasonable
precautions such as weather awareness and suppression tools. Full details including video
resources can be found at https://gatrees.org/burn-permits-and-notifications/.
Georgia’s outdoor summer burn ban is in effect May 1-Sept. 30 in the following counties:
Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Butts, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb,
Columbia, Coweta, Crawford, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gordon,
Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin,
Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pike, Polk,
Putnam, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Troup, Twiggs, Upson, Walker and Walton.
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