Wood burner ban...

How old are they , my emphysema , most likely caused by second hand smoke /open fires as a child didn’t cause me any issues until I was diagnosed aged 50 . I’ve never smoked / vaped and never had open fires /a wood burner as an adult .

Ban them in urban areas. No excuse. If we’re in a situation where people who have wood burners use the excuse they’re worried about mass power cuts and days without means of heating we’ve got bigger issues as a country (and then are we saying it’s alright for anyone who doesn’t have one to freeze/starve?).

In rural areas I can see more of an argument. I think if you live in a village and have a central gas heating system of some sort it’s really not necessary and think those should be banned still tbh. But if you live in the middle of nowhere and it’s your only/main heating supply I would make an exception for that to any ban.

for those blathering on about how they’re not actually that polluting if you have it installed and maintained and using the correct wood well honestly, I imagine you are in the minority. And even in this example it’s still an unnecessary pollutant. I find it incredibly selfish to use one in urban areas. I can always tell when one house on my jogging route has it on because I can smell the horrible fumes before I see them coming out of their chimney. It’s only one house but it stinks up the entire street. We don’t have smoking indoors anymore but people are allowed to pump out that much toxic air pollution is laughable. Even worse if your neighbour has one as then you can’t even avoid it inside your own home if your windows etc are open or every time you step outside.

people who have woodburners for the aesthetic without caring about the poulltion it’s chucking out to neighbours and their wider community make me despair out of sheer ignorance, selfishness, or both. No one needs a wood burner for heat in urban areas.

christmas tree argument is ridiculous. It’s not impacting people outside of your own house. I don’t have a choice which streets I walk down (or am I meant to walk massively out of my way to avoid it, difficult if there’s multiple streets with woodburners).

would 100% support a full ban on these, with small exemptions given for genuinely rural houses “off grid” without other heating options/means.

You must know how unusual that is. Almost every adult over 70 will have been brought up with an open fire or open fires near by and they don't all have emphysema.

You must know how unusual that is. Almost every adult over 70 will have been brought up with an open fire or open fires near by and they don't all have emphysema.

How do you feel about traffic?

Pretty good now so many cars are electric or hybrid.

Cardiac problems is a more common outcome of fine air particles pollution and cardiac issues are very common.

Pretty good now so many cars are electric or hybrid.

Shall we ban gas hobs too? What about the risk posed by gas boilers? Cars? Flying? AI? Social media for children? Microplastics? Have you noticed the state of our water lately? I think on the whole that log burners are an incredibly safe way to stay warm, especially the new ones.

My lovely friend who has just died of lung cancer in her early 70s was diagnosed at the routine check up.

She's never smoked but has lived for many years in a house where the heating and hot water was run from a wood burning stove in the living room. It was on 16 hours a day through the colder months.

You can't know for certain that was the cause as lung cancer can strike people with no known risk factors. But it is a known risk factor and has put me right off wood burners. I used to love the faint smell of wood smoke but now I can only think that it is going straight into our lungs.

But yes, very handy in a power outage.

"burp the house" ? This is the cutest thing ever 😭

You must know how unusual that is. Almost every adult over 70 will have been brought up with an open fire or open fires near by and they don't all have emphysema.

Maybe people should consider the risks of sitting at their pc all day on social media, or driving their cars?

Should we ban cars? Look up the number of deaths in the UK from car accidents.

Do you think electricity is non polluting?

Pretty good now so many cars are electric or hybrid.

Maybe people should consider the risks of sitting at their pc all day on social media, or driving their cars?

Should we ban cars? Look up the number of deaths in the UK from car accidents.

People seem to forget that almost everything we do in a day has some form of negative effect- every biscuit, every hour sat on our arses scrolling, every time we get in the car and risking death, every glass of wine. If we eliminate all pleasure from life what's the bloody point?! We might live a bit longer but we would be miserable! Most people enjoy siting by the fire and it has the added benefit of keeping us warm. Bad for the environment probably but possibly not worse than burning fossil fuels to heat our homes and definitely not worse than all the climate pollution caused by data centres and war.

Most of it is non polluting these days. The UK passed the threshold of green energy last year. This year 55% of electricity generation is green. In addition, the environmental regs on electric companies ensure any dirty emissions are scrubbed of particulates or otherwise made harmless before entering the air. You dont have that on individual chinneys for wood burners.

Ban them in urban areas. No excuse. If we’re in a situation where people who have wood burners use the excuse they’re worried about mass power cuts and days without means of heating we’ve got bigger issues as a country (and then are we saying it’s alright for anyone who doesn’t have one to freeze/starve?).

In rural areas I can see more of an argument. I think if you live in a village and have a central gas heating system of some sort it’s really not necessary and think those should be banned still tbh. But if you live in the middle of nowhere and it’s your only/main heating supply I would make an exception for that to any ban.

for those blathering on about how they’re not actually that polluting if you have it installed and maintained and using the correct wood well honestly, I imagine you are in the minority. And even in this example it’s still an unnecessary pollutant. I find it incredibly selfish to use one in urban areas. I can always tell when one house on my jogging route has it on because I can smell the horrible fumes before I see them coming out of their chimney. It’s only one house but it stinks up the entire street. We don’t have smoking indoors anymore but people are allowed to pump out that much toxic air pollution is laughable. Even worse if your neighbour has one as then you can’t even avoid it inside your own home if your windows etc are open or every time you step outside.

people who have woodburners for the aesthetic without caring about the poulltion it’s chucking out to neighbours and their wider community make me despair out of sheer ignorance, selfishness, or both. No one needs a wood burner for heat in urban areas.

christmas tree argument is ridiculous. It’s not impacting people outside of your own house. I don’t have a choice which streets I walk down (or am I meant to walk massively out of my way to avoid it, difficult if there’s multiple streets with woodburners).

would 100% support a full ban on these, with small exemptions given for genuinely rural houses “off grid” without other heating options/means.

You really do not get it. Many of us in rural areas do not have mains gas. But nice of you do let us country folk have a pass on your ban.