BonnerSprings.com

Summer is the season for outdoor grilling, but what many people don’t know is that it may harm the environment.

In an effort to help, the Unified Government Public Health Department’s Air Quality program is sponsoring an event that asks residents to trade in their charcoal lighter fluid for a safer charcoal chimney.

Justus Welker, environmental scientist with the air quality department, said that lighter fluid contains volatile organic compounds that evaporate in the air and cause ozone or smog.

“It’s just another small thing you can do that doesn’t take much effort,” Welker said of giving up lighter fluid. “It’s one more thing you can do to help protect the environment.”

In exchange for bringing in a bottle of lighter fluid, either used or new, the Unified Government will exchange it for a free charcoal chimney. From 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 21, July 19 and Aug. 16, people can pick up their chimney at the Wyandotte County Household Hazardous Waste collection site, 2443 S. 88th St., Kansas City, Kan.

In the four years this exchange program has been offered, the air quality department has given away 924 chimneys and collected more than 116 gallons of lighter fluid. Welker estimated the program has removed 2.25 tons of volatile organic compounds from the air.

“We were just looking for an additional way to reduce air pollution,” Welker said of how the program was started. “We decided to think outside the box for an idea.”

Welker said the chimney exchange seemed like a unique idea as a way to make a difference. Instead of using lighter fluid, the charcoal chimney uses paper to heat the charcoals.

The chimney is a cylinder shape divided into two sections. In the top, charcoal is placed and underneath, paper is placed. The paper is lit on fire, which travels up, heating the charcoal, where it can then be poured out of the chimney into a regular grill.

Welker said using the chimney works as fast as lighter fluid. He added that with the chimney, grillers wouldn’t experience a residual taste on food that often happens if enough time isn’t given for all the fluid to burn off.

All those benefits, however, don’t compare to the fact that using a chimney will impact the air quality, Welker said. When the program was started, he said air quality in the Kansas City area was poor due to ozone, a major component of smog.

Ozone is a pollutant formed when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide combine with the help of heat and sunlight. While ozone forms naturally, Welker said the pollutants added by people increase the problem.

Reducing the use of volatile organic compounds by using the charcoal chimney, Welker said, would significantly cut down the amount of man-made pollutants produced during the summer months.

For more information about the chimney exchange program, call (913) 573-6700 or visit wycokck.org/airquality.

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1. 19 June 2008 at 8:16 a.m.

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   triedntru (Anonymous) says…

   Ok, so what are they going to do with all that lighter fluid they've collected? Pour it in the river? I like the idea of a free charcoal chimney, but I don't understand how this program removes the lighter fluid from the environmental equation. Something has to be done with it.

2. 19 June 2008 at 9:43 a.m.

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   jwelker (Anonymous) says…

   The program is more about creating awareness and transforming behaviors and habits. Once someone converts to using a charcaol chimney instead of charcoal lighter fluid, all of the lighter fluid that they might have used is taken out of the environmental equation. All of the charcoal lighter fluid that we collect is handled by a local environmental company.

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