NOW that Gov. Eliot Spitzer is in office, the makers of outdoor wood-fired boilers better listen up.

He introduced the law restricting outdoor wood-fired boilers.

The devices, outdoor wood-fired boilers, originally invented to heat farmhouses, are now a fast-growing alternative energy fad - and, depending on whom you ask, the latest suburban scourge.

Wary of responding to false alarms caused by an outdoor boiler on Pinehurst Road in Holyoke, Mass., the Fire Department sued the boiler's owners in October, and won a cease-and-desist order.

The arrival of these outdoor boilers is causing a headache for local officials as residents worry about the impact they will have on their health, quality of life and property values.

Last month, Steve Levy, Suffolk County executive, vetoed a bill that would have banned outdoor boilers within 1,000 feet of any structure.

Whether it is warm weather ozone or year-round fine particle pollution, the threat to public health that already exists cannot afford the added injury caused by an influx of outdoor wood-burning boilers.

But the owners' neighbors often complain that the outdoor wood-fired boilers produce unbearable levels of smoke, and a growing body of research about the boilers' pollution has prompted campaigns around the country to limit their use.

Burning usually occurs in a burn barrel, homemade burn box, wood stove, outdoor boiler, or open pit.

However, as of February 2012, in the United States only 8 states have adopted this voluntary standard and only allow the installation of these cleaner, EPA qualified outdoor boilers.