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

Smokeless ovoids are roughly the same price if bought in bulk.

depends on where your wood sources are from and or if its off cuts of wood from the local timber businesses etc rather than shop prices for wood

The reason we have the clean air act is the high levels of people dying from smog.
I live in a rural village and the amount of wood smoke in the Winter can make me very wheezy and tight chested. This is just what’s coming in from outside, it does get smoggy on flat windless days. So I can only imagine how bad it was living in small towns or cities when everyone had fires.
I love a wood fire as do most of us, but I rarely have one as the smoke pollution is a real issue. Not sure how to minimise it, I have heard that new stoves are designed to minimise polluting particles, I need to research that though.

by that logic the same can be said for every car driver that's polluting the environment, you are all just as bad

Not if you have a free supply of firewood.

My grans village all had open fires until a few years ago. I don’t know anyone with lung cancer there 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for putting this up again. It’s highlighted every so often and you always get people dismissing it, saying how their woodburner is fine, they use seasoned logs etc If they want to ignore the risk that’s on them but it’s worth letting people know that it’s a serious health risk to use a wood burner and it’s an even bigger risk to the health of any children living there.

cars don’t make my house smell of exhaust fumes.

yes they all pollute, but I’m not sat in my kitchen stinking of cars. I am sat stinking of woodsmoke from next doors wood burner.

Nothing to do with free antenatal and maternity care, caesarian sections and fetal monitoring, antenatal screening, folic acid prescriptions, vitamin k at birth, heel prick testing, benefits to pay for housing, heating and food, vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, Hib, pneumonia, RSV, influenza and TB, TB free milk due to pasteurisation, food hygiene standards, the invention of antibiotics and antivirals, fortified foodstuffs, free contraception, non invasive testing for diagnosis and availability of termination for foetal abnormality, lead removed from petrol, reduction in severe domestic violence with greater rights for women, legal standards for housing and the prevention of homelessness in vulnerable groups.

Just the wood fires?

Log burners / wood burners emit significant levels of particulates which impact on the lungs of the people breathing in the fumes. They are harmful to health. I don't say this to be "preachy" or to shout at anyone.

I am a carer for a disabled relative with a progressive lung disease and I can see the impact that fumes from local woodburner usage has on her ability to breathe comfortably. I don't know how I can say this any more clearly. There are other environmental pollutants impacting on lung health but log burner usage is a significant contributing factor.

Here is a link to the British Heart Foundation highlighting the risks of these pollutants https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2020/march/open-fires-wood-burners-bad-health

My gran smoked til she was 90. I don’t know anyone with lung cancer either 🤷‍♀️

they are depending on where you get the wood, eg local timber yard selling off cuts of wood etc

Do you mean to be so spiteful and nasty. What a horrible thing to say.

I'd rather get rid of my car than my log burner (multifuel, Defra approved stove)

I had it Installed 8 years ago, I'm chronically asthmatic with a small but hard to heat bungalow.
Being cold does me far more harm than my stove.

How on earth did so many of us survive to the current day

I live in NZ and lots of people live on farms. Electricity can, and does, go down in weather events - sometimes for weeks - and people need to be able to keep warm.

Also, anyone I know who has a woodburner has the most toasty warm houses you can imagine. I think we will just continue as we are (and woodburners do have to be compliant).

People don't need to burn wood. Smokeless fuel is easier to burn and not prone to the fluctuations in temperature that can occur with wood if it's not supervised closely. More modern multifuel stoves burn cleaner as well.

@Dobest

What a stupid comment.

Rural areas not so bad.

urban areas the smoke does affect neigbours more than you think.

I’m a HCP I live very rurally and everyone either has a log burner or open fire I am not up to my eyeballs in patients with non smoking related lung tumours. And other respiratory diseases are no more common here than in other areas I’ve worked where open fires/log burners are less common in fact anecdotally I would say they are less common because we have much less air pollution in general.

As a chronic asthmatic you are actively damagng your health with the log burner. Does your doctor know that you have it?

My grandad lived to 90 and smoked. Maybe smoking is good for us and we should all smoke

We didn't have child car seats in the 70s and no kids in my village died. No need for child car seats then I guess

Fuck me, I love a BBQ. I am clearly doomed.

Yes I've invited her round to toast marshmallows in front of it...my lungs are no worse in the time I've had the stove, in fact they've improved as I've lost loads of weight and can exercise more improving my lung function ....funny that !

Love my woodburner

If mumsnet had been around in the 70s you just know people would have been saying "My kids never had car seats and they're still alive. No need for them"