Wood burner ban...

If the particles for wood burners are so bad, they are the same as those emitted when frying food.

On that basis we should also ban all takeaways. Which for those of us that live rurally would have zero impact but imagine others may not agree.

Yes, same here (but bottled gas rather than oil). What is one supposed to do if one lives in an old property not suitable for air/ground source heat pumps and a thatched property which cannot have solar panels? Plus a plentiful source of firewood. Nope, I'm keeping mine and will happily carry on using it - it is not an ornament, a luxury, an affectation, but a necessity. Unless, of course, the government would be kind enough to subsidise the cost of my bottled gas, the price of which is totally unregulated and extortionate, since the suppliers know that those of us 'off grid' have no choice but to pay their prices or freeze

it is not an ornament, a luxury, an affectation

Absolutely. And this is why it shouldn’t be banned as people like you need this.

Oh that's awful - I really think a flue should not legally be allowed to be by a neighbour's window!
No need to ban all woodburners though - where I live, the smoke just puffs through chimneys on top of the houses, and you can't ever smell it.

No, they are the norm in most rural areas alongside oil-fired central heating and the only form of heating which works through the regular power cuts in Winter.

Its not just isolated houses - plenty of small villages have no mains gas and suffer the same rural Winter power cuts.

When the oil price per litre more than doubled within 48 hours earlier in the year, causing massive hardship for many dependent on oil heating, the wood burners were their only source of affordable heat (precious little help from government with oil prices and what was made available was far too late to help).

Also worth noting that for years now wood burners have much lower emissions than the old style. Rural dwellers care about their children and health as well and part of that is keeping them warm.

If you are going to make sweeping calls for bans it is a good idea to understand the impact and the justification.

Throughout Europe governments are urging people to stock up on essentials and prepare for outages. There was news recently of a fault in a power line between GB and Northern Ireland (Russian submarine activity?). We are in a very vulnerable situation with extreme weather forecast and power outages expected. I wouldn’t be so blasé about it as to end up huddled under a blanket eating cold baked beans out of a tin.

Guilty ! We have 2 . One , in the living room gets lit just about every night in winter . The one in the kitchen about once a week/ ten days. Rest of the house is heated by electric. Luckily we have solar panels but also ,unluckily ,live in the most expensive part of the UK for electricity, North Wales and Merseyside. Would love to be self sufficient in clean electric but until then gotta carry on being a hypocrite...and staying warm.( Ps. collect and chop at least half of the wood ourselves and often have a veg stew going on atop the wood burner)

There are tons of health promotion campaigns about alcohol and it is taxed for its harms.

The rest is basic science about the particulates it creates ...the science is clear.

Remember that when your power goes off and you're in the garage burning the last one of your husbands porno magazines to keep warm.

I would love one but I’m never going to get one because I couldn’t tolerate the lung damage which comes with them. They’re dangerous.

I can see why they might be a bit of an issue in cities, but rural areas are completely different. And I think it's only wood burners that they've got it in for, seem to be ignoring open fires (for now anyway)? When my neighbours have bonfires it creates far, far more pollution than a wood burning stove.

It's the same thing with gas boilers and cars with engines too, the government seem hellbent on converting everything to electric, even though the power grid has nowhere near enough capacity to cope and they're showing no real interest in upgrading it. I strongly suspect electricity companies are shoving brown envelopes down ed miliband's trousers.

No we aren’t a third world country but storm Goretti cut us off for 8 days - thank goodness for our bakalite landline and our woodburner!

...and probs more pollution from the diesel powered Chelsea tractors chugging around our streets ?!

we have an open fireplace (standard edwardian house). Whenerver we lit a fire, it is beautiful however it doesnt warm the room at all! The heat goes straight through the chimney!! No use at all in a blackout! Maybe roasting marshmallows, but thats about it!

No actually, the science is not clear at all on this, the most widely published studies are very limited and often lacking in reliability and validity.

Wood burning stoves are the main producer of small particle air pollution in the UK. It's the most dangerous type of air pollution for humans.

Isn't one of the main causes of ill health the 20% of people who smoke and more who now vape?

And those who are obese.

Far more serious public health issues .

"Banning log burners could mean that houses have no source of heating!"
I don't think the purists are bothered by that. They probably think everyone should just swallow the costs of the current activist-approved tech and tough if you can't afford it you'll just have to wrap up warm.

Hate them, I removed mine immediately after moving into my new house. I really do not like them and I hate the burning smell that the air is full of in winter.

Wood burning stoves are as bad as smoking or even a bit worse. They are bad for your health.

That's simply not true, especially of newer models.

Log burners may be worse for asthma but gas fired power stations which provide electricity are worse for the climate and global warning. Choose your poison or freeze.

It is true. There is a lot of research out there to show this. Older models are worse, newer models are still dangerous for health.

You sound nice...

It's actually a close second to road transport which produces 21% of PM 2.5 from brake, tyre and road wear.