To help reduce the amount of wood smoke particles that can cloud the air in wintertime, a new rule will require people selling a home in Oregon to remove any uncertified wood stove or fireplace insert.

“This is one way to help clean up the air of the state,” said Rachel Sakata, air quality planner with the Department of Environmental Quality.

Bend and Deschutes County already require removal of the old, uncertified stoves before homes are sold, she said. But the new rule, which goes into effect Aug. 1, applies to the entire state.

Wood stoves emit tiny particles — a fraction of the width of a strand of hair — that can get deep into lungs and cause respiratory and cardiac problems in certain people and aggravate asthma, Sakata said. And older stoves that have not been certified burn about 70 percent dirtier than newer, certified stoves, according to the DEQ.

“These older stoves were not required to meet any emission testing (standards), and the newer ones have better technology,” Sakata said, comparing it to how newer cars emit less pollution.

Bend’s wood stove rules were adopted more than a decade ago, she said, and the city hasn’t had as many problems with air quality as in the past.

Under the new rules, the seller of a house must remove wood stoves or fireplace inserts that have not been certified as meeting emission standards set by the DEQ or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A seller can either hire someone to do this or take the old stove to a scrap metal facility or landfill and get a receipt saying it was disposed of properly.

The old stoves can’t be resold.

Although the removal requirement goes into effect next month, the state is still working on rules that will require people to notify DEQ that they have removed the stoves, and that will set fines for failing to do so.

“We’re really focusing more on education and outreach,” Sakata said.

Removing old stoves shouldn’t cause too much hardship on home sellers, said Bill Bellamy, with Coldwell Banker Dick Dodson Realty in Madras.

Hardly any of the homes built in the last decade have wood stoves, he said.

And for those that do, in recent years, insurance companies have not been issuing policies unless the stoves have been certified, so many people have already replaced them.

“Over the last five to 10 years, you kind of had this warning to people, through their insurance,” he said.