Canada is looking into whether restaurants' wood ovens meet emissions standards

Canada is looking into air pollution from wood ovens at places like pizzerias and bagel shops.

The federal government says it carried out "compliance promotion activities" with some restaurants that use wood-fired ovens to determine if they meet emission reporting thresholds under the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) program.

NPRI is a publicly available list of pollutants released into the air, water and land, as well as disposals and transfers for recycling from industrial, commercial and institutional facilities in the country. The government says NPRI does not regulate emissions, only keeps track of them, and owners or operators of facilities that meet the requirements have to report their emissions, disposals and recycling each year.

"Addressing air pollution is a shared responsibility between federal, provincial and territorial governments. Some provinces and municipalities in Canada also have standards in place that set limits on air pollutant emissions from new residential wood-burning appliances," a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada told CTV News in a statement.

In some cities across Canada, bylaws place strict limits on wood burning, some even require permits to install home-heating systems that use wood as fuel.

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In Montreal, the local public health agency reported in 2019 that three per cent of pollutants in the city's air came from commercial wood burning stoves.

Smoke from wood stoves and fireplaces, much like wildfire smoke, contains fine particles that when inhaled can be harmful or even deadly.

The federal government provides information online on how to protect yourself from wood smoke.

Environment Canada added in a 2018 study it determined virtually all residential wood burning appliances available in Canada were "certified to the cleanest emission standards required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the equivalent Canadian Standards Association emission and testing standards."