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

And for those of us who do have gas but live rurally and experience regular power cuts in the depth of a Scottish winter??
Can’t run a gas boiler without electricity. Therefore woodburners are a good alternative heat source when you need it.

Have you only just discovered this or something?

Wow, these look like really independent reports, not a vested interest in sight 🙄

Thank you

No more birthday cake for you @GlassHouseBlue 😂.

You can get filters that remove up to 95% of the particulates.

Omg my neighbour her bf who doesn't live here, one summer they did this at the side of the house, I was wheezing, it was when we had a heat wave, I had to close all the windows it was very bad.
I spoke with her and got a response of I'll do what I want.
They've never done it again.
She goes on about her kids being asthmatic etc but they don't think of the fumes that were coming inside.

68% sounds scary unless you include the starting risk. A 68% increase on a very low number is still a very low number.

Gas cookers are pretty bad too. Car exhausts also.

You're not wrong OP and I wouldn't get a wood burner myself, but there are so many other bad things.

The far bigger killers are stress, lack of exercise and a bad diet.

rip off prices of gas companies = people dont use heating much and then become at risk of hyperthermia @GlassHouseBlue

It depends on the type of house. If you live in an old country cottage with lots of fresh air moving around then a wood burner is fine. But put one in an airtight home with insulation and double glazing and you’re poisoning yourself.

Wood burners are not cheaper than mains gas.

You simply must start a new thread to warn all those in California - and if you do it in lower case then it doesn’t even count

Oh my days
Wake up.
Wood have been burned for thousands of years as a means to keep warm
I would be more concerned about microwaves and petrol fumes in the air.
What about petrol and diesel fumes.
Seriously.
Go try living in a remote part of the world where wood burning is essential.
Your pollution comes from petrol and other stuff.

What next?
Milk should be banned and so should apples but we should all buy apple flavoured milkshake with lots of e numbers as a safer alternative ...
Hmmm
Ever thought If it's all just to make someone money.

Hmmm
Energy supplier's probably funded the research and the leaflets. Less profit if people are woodburning.

Infant mortality in 1924 was 78 per 1000, it’s now less than 4. Life expectancy was at least 10 years less. Not sure what makes you conclude that more fires meant a healthier population.

I'm not getting off this planet alive, and I'm not wasting my life being cold and miserable.

I'm sure I could find or make up a fact about how much less stressed pyromaniacs are than preachy ecowarriors. 🔥

@GlassHouseBlue You’re 100% correct. 3x the particulate pollution of all vehicles on the road, it’s absolutely shocking really.

There’s now plenty of scientific evidence unfiltered particulate pollution caused by these burners are highly toxic and detrimental to our health. I see lots of head in sand on this thread op, but you’ll be proven correct in the years to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/16/home-wood-burning-biggest-cause-particle-pollution-fires

I now wish I had a car just so I could idle it outside the OP's house.

It depends on the type of house. If you live in an old country cottage with lots of fresh air moving around then a wood burner is fine. But put one in an airtight home with insulation and double glazing and you’re poisoning yourself.

You open the room door and trickle vents on the windows when you're doing the first burn and getting it up to temperature in case a bit of smoke smell gets out when you refuel.
Once it's hot, nothing will come out if you refuel as it'll be drawing nicely.

I use a wood burner and will continue to do so.
I’d think the greater threats to health are from industry and the vast pollution caused on a global scale by the wars going on at present.

But of course let’s ignore that and blame the little people using wood burners !🤣

but then your smoke goes up your chimney and out into the air for all the neighbours to smell.

Most people who have a wood burner only use it occasionally. It's cosy but a lot of work and they prefer their radiators. They'll use the wood stove if they have visitors sometimes or over Christmas, everyone says how lovely and natural it is and all that :-). Give me central heating any time. I've no doubt we are in contact with stuff every day that could be carcinogenic but mostly has to be longstanding, regular contact, eg smoking a packet of cigarettes every day for many years, being a coal miner, working with asbestos or in a cotton mill, rather than occasionally burning wood. In far earlier times everyone burned wood to heat and cook.

We have oil fired central heating and our woodburner is considerably cheaper than oil. No mains gas in our village. We mainly use our own wood , last winter we got a top up of wood for £100 and that's all it cost us to keep it burning all winter. This year it probably won't cost anything as we've got loads of seasoned wood of our own.

You do know that at one time every house was heated by coal or wood fires, and that didn't lead to massive amounts of lung cancer cases.

Exposure to indoor air pollution is one of the biggest killers of women in developing countries today and killed huge numbers of women in the past. It would have killed even more were it not for the fact that so many women died at earlier ages of other things like infectious disease, childbirth and the like.

Using a modern certified woodburner and doing everything right (only using really dry wood etc) is better than old style fires, but still a significant health risk. Even if you do all these things and do everything possible to mitigate the risk, you are still breathing in far more particulates than the recommended safe max. limits.

It's actually the greatly increased risk of things like Alzheimers and Parkinsons that freaks me out the most.

Sorry meant to add the photo of the view/smell from my kitchen window: