The United States Environmental Protection Agency has some useful information on the health effects of wood smoke, stating: "Wood smoke contains harmful chemical substances such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxin, and inhalable particulate matter (PM). Some of the VOCs are irritating, toxic, and/or cancer causing. One of the biggest human health threats from smoke, indoors or outdoors, comes from PM. Wood smoke PM is composed of wood tars, gases, soot, and ashes. Toxic air pollutants are a potentially important component of wood smoke. A group of air toxics known as polycyclic organic matter includes potential carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene."
Table 2, from a study done by the American Chemical Institute, which can be found here:
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/article.cgi/esthag/2000/34/i11/html/es9909632.html
outlines in detail some of the gasses and particulates released by burning wood. Because there are hundreds of particulates, gases and compounds released in burning wood, I was unable to find a complete list in laymans terms. The three most common that are measured in studies I examined were Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide & Methyl chloride. Other common gases that were detailed from the hundreds found, many of which are known as ozone depleting “greenhouse gases”, are CHCl3 (chloroform or trichloromethane), CH3CCl3 (trichloroethane or methyl chloroform), CCl4 (Carbon Tetrachloride), TCE (trichloroethylene), PCE (tetrachloroethylene or perchloroethylene), CH3Cl (Methyl Chloride),F-113 ( trichlorotrifluoroethane), N2O (Nitrogen Oxide).
If you are looking for an exhaustive list of gases released when a particular type of wood is burned, I would encourage you to feel free to get back to us here at Radical Reference, or to contact your local public or university library.
Sources:
http://www.epa.gov/woodstoves/healthier.html
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/92046.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/1982/16/i10/f-pdf
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts18.html
www.dhs.ca.gov/ohb/HESIS/tce.htm
www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts30.html
Atmospheric Environment Volume 37, Issues 9-10 , March 2003, Pages 1211-1222
James P. Lodge, Jr. Memorial Issue. Measurement Issues in Atmospheric Chemistry (http://tinyurl.com/37rlvr)
