Particulates from wood smoke account for the majority of air pollution in Portland each year. It's bad all year round but worst in the winter when the same people who won't wear masks to protect others from covid love to crank up the old-timey, cozy machine and of course that includes the 'roaring fire' of yesteryear, when our ancestors had no clue that breathing the resultant chemicals and minute shard-like particulates was like suicide for your lungs. These geniuses don't believe in science, though, just in their "Rights" to do whatever mischief floats their boats. But I reserve my strongest contempt for the liberals and science-believers who refuse to confront and shame these people who must have their fireplaces (they come in gas-powered, you know, doofus), their firepits, their barbeques (and perhaps their book-burnings). It's all part of the same ego-driven death wish that prevents them from realizing that 2022 is a very different place from 1822. The same people who would attack you for smoking a cigarette within a quarter mile of their delicate systems gladly breathe the filthy, harmful air in Portland caused by wood smoke and don't make a single step toward cleaning it up. When exactly are you going to educate yourself and act like a humane, decent person? Oh, I forgot: it's your right NOT to.