HIGHLIGHTING DANGER OF WOODBURNERS

[GlassHouseBlue]

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) -
essentially tiny particles of soot - is one
of the most dangerous air pollutants.
Breathing it in is linked to lung cancer,
heart damage, strokes, impaired cognition
and mental health problems, and can
exacerbate conditions such as asthma,
COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. Children
and elderly people are most vulnerable

I have thought about this in the e past but I won't be getting one now so thank you OP. I'm lucky enough to have central heating. I think having a wood burner as well would be greedy considering there's only so many resources in the world and so much of a footprint we should be leaving. it's not necessary.

If you don't have any other means of heating then obviously you need to use it and that's different. I doubt OP was talking to you.

The lifetime risk of lung cancer is 7% and 8% of these cases are estimated to be caused by air pollution.

And 72% are caused by smoking. So as I said, lifetime risks for non-smokers are way, way lower.

Well, I love mine and will continue to use it😘

I DONT GIVE A SHIT

I love mine & will continue to use it.

Thank you OP as it reminded me to get some logs in.

The rate of asthma is greater in cities & deprived areas where I'm guessing there's fewer log burners so perhaps there's other causes.

People have been burning wood for millennia. Total bollocks.

This.

I also love our log burner and it's lit right now. Nice and toasty. The dogs are sleeping in front of the hearth. It's my favourite time of year.

I burn wood and smokeless ovoids AND I have GCH.

Whichever way I end up popping my clogs if it's in the house I'm going to be warm when I go.

I’m moving next year and if the new house doesn’t have a wood burner the first thing on the to do list will be putting one or maybe two in. Thanks for the reminder.

@HowYouSpellingThat10 we have a delivery due next week, I left it a bit late to get some ordered

I sat right next to one going in my son's tutor's house. Since it was a weekly arrangement I was in the room with it regularly. Noticed nothing asthma wise.

Cold air now, requires a step up in inhaler use.

No, she gone through all of that and as i said previously, which seems to have gone right over your head, she has changed how she uses her heating system and now goes cold.

Ironically, her landlord took out the gas heating and went electric, because he wanted to be "Green" tbh he has actually reduced her rent slightly after she told him how much it was costing her during the winter.

And on that point it's worth mentioning that even radiators can be aggravating to asthma sufferers especially those with allergies since they can dry the air.

It's all a question of balance.

For a bit of science balance check out Pof. Gary Perdew’s work for the university of Pennsylvania on how we humans have adapted over millennia to burn wood as we progressed further north, helping mitigate (to a degree) the risks. Also take a look at the recent BBC investigation (available on radio 4 - ‘criminal waste’) showing that a significant amount of all the plastic and other waste that we all carefully recycle is either thrown into illegal landfill or incinerated anyway. And now, OP - please stop telling me what to do with perfectly carbon neutral kiln dried wood and a modern filter efficient wood burner in my own home. IN CAPITALS.

Everyone in my village (including me) heats their house with wood as there is no other viable alternative. There is very rarely any smell of woodsmoke on the street, except maybe for a very short while first thing in the morning before the stoves reach optimum temperature. All the fruit trees in my garden have lichen growing on them, as do the trees in the surrounding woods (the presence of lichen is a very good indicator of good air quality) 🤷‍♀️. I conclude that wood burning stoves probably aren’t a good thing in very built-up areas where so many other pollutants join the mix, but in rural areas they are still essential elements whose benefits outweigh any minor harms. Plus, thinning the woods every year for fuel has produced the most amazing woodland landscapes full of mature trees, flora and fungi and supporting heaps of wildlife. If you don’t like how the countryside works, don’t live there.

We have no gas so have two log burners. The oil heating is on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night, the rest of the time the house is heated by the stoves. We can keep the house warmer for longer and cheaper with wood than oil. We also live on a very busy A road and lived on a main road as a child so I consider that much worse than the stoves. I cant understand people saying that the smoke blows in their houses though, when chimneys are so high.

Oh I’ll just get rid of the 4.5 tonnes of wood I have then and put it all on the gas meter, where do you think the pollution from the gas goes OP? Do you drive a car OP? Honestly stop being preachy and shut up.

Thanks for the reminder OP, I need to empty the ash over my garden and refill my log store with 2 year old kiln dried renewable energy logs.
All good for the environment. 👍

I think it would be interesting to see a study comparing death by cold v wood burner cancer risk. Gas boilers aren’t accessible to every body. There isn’t mains gas in the town we live in. A town of 3000 adults. Most people have a fire of some sort. I’m 40 and only in the last 2 years have I lived in a house without a fire.

Artist by the water: yes, we’ve been keeping warm with fire for thousands of years. However, life expectancy was between 20 and 30 years old much of that time. Are those the good old days? Loads of scientific evidence about the dangers of wood fires is not ’woke’- it’s scientific evidence that should wake us up!

However, life expectancy was between 20 and 30 years old much of that time.

That was average life expectancy at birth. There was a sky-high infant and maternal mortality rate. If you survived those and didn't get anything you needed antibiotics for, you could probably make it well into your sixties or beyond.
People weren't all hauling off and dying at age 30 due to woodsmoke.

Far north west of Scotland. No gas here. We’re a lost cause. It’s either freeze to death or lung cancer by stove. Brings me so much joy!

As with all things you need to do it properly to get the best outcome.
-burn only dry wood
-stack it properly in the stove and don’t have the door open for any more time than is necessary
-have the chimney swept regularly
-fires need a good flow of air so ventilation in the room is key
Gas boilers and cookers also require adequate ventilation and are quite “leaky” in terms of air pollution

TBH just walking around a city will fill your lungs with particulates
it’s traffic that’s the main cause and then pollution from industry

There needs to be properly funded Government incentives for people to give up their cars and their gas boilers - until then we’re stuck paying extortionate prices and having to resort to alternative ways to heat our homes

I live in a remote scottish island with no gas, electric is extortionate. What do you suggest for us other than our life saving wood burner tonight at -5degrees?

It is true that life expectancy was greatly pulled down by infant mortality, BUT deaths in young and middle age were also far, far higher than they are now. And indoor air pollution was a huge factor behind this. Indeed, it is probably the single biggest killer of women in poor countries today.