> Quickbee wrote:

That would be me ("Quickbee" = "Bee-Quick" = "The Guy
who was James Fischer before he started keeping bees").

I wrote the article cited, so I'm not sure if I should
debate the divergent interpretation offered, or apologize
for the article being unclear enough to interpret in a
divergent way.  :)

>> But the entire point of that article was that there is little
>> difference  between the various choices in smoker fuels

> "highly variable"??

Yes, the byproducts of combustion vary quite a bit
depending upon a set of factors that defy precise
quantification, such as the moisture content of
the fuel, the air humidity, how tightly you "pack"
your smoker and thereby limit airflow, and so on.
This variability "swamps out" the differences between
fuels, leaving the choice of fuels to a less-complex
discussion about what lights easily, and/or what
appears to smolder well

Since the combustion process itself is what varies,
and the smoker fuels are all essentially cellulose,
the fuel just does not matter as much as how you
use your smoker, store your fuel, etc.

> In his article "Blowin' Smoke" James Fisher concludes:

>> "no matter what you burn in your smoker, your 'clean,
>> cool smoke' is a mix of superheated toxic chemicals
>> and carcinogens that cannot  possibly be good for you,
>> your bees, or your honey if used in excessive amounts.
>> Bottom line, easy on the smoke. It's nasty stuff."

> So what isn't toxic?

None of it isn't toxic.
Its ALL toxic!

The mere act of burning and smoldering will create toxic stuff.
There's simply NO SUCH THING as "non-toxic smoke".

That said, there is no known disease called "beekeeper's lung",
so while we certainly may inhale more smoke in a season than
the average Boy Scout does on camping trips, it does not seem
to be the source of any health problems, so we can all relax.

I forgot - here's something else that might help put my view
of smokers and smoking bees into perspective:
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/smoker.pdf

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