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

Vegetarian with wood burner here.

Grow up.

OP is right.

I must be weird I absolutely love the smell of woodburners when I’m out walking my dog, can’t be that weird though because the woodburner smell is sold by the White Company as a diffuser oil, what’s going to give me lung disease first smelling woodburners on my daily walk or my diffuser? What if I light my gas stove and a candle at the same time as well am I doomed to life in an iron lung?

Yep
People don’t realise gas stoves are really not great for your health yet everyone buys them !! and use them everyday probably.!!
Woodburners however are just when you are freezing cold

Exactly, so why are there never any threads on the dangers of gas cookers to health, yet loads of threads about woodburners?, and how many households have a gas cooker? A lot more than have woodburners I expect.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65722603

You'd hate me we have a multi fuel powered AGA. No gas, electricity regularly goes out and gotta heat the house somehow.

I'm away at the moment and our heating has been on its normal timer but no one is there to boost it or put the fire on.

Right now, our house is 7 degrees

We had 9c this morning and like you ( I’m guessing you are in the country with overhead power lines ) we regularly have no electricity.

We’d freeze if we didn’t have the burners.

@StandingSideBySide yes! Glad it's not just us! We live in a ridiculous village that regularly gets cut off with snow and then usually the power goes out too!

How tf do you think people kept warm for all the thousands of years before central heating?

1. The risk is small compared with woodburners.
2. Most people who have a gas cooker have it as their only source, and replacing cookers is expensive.
3. I have one, but am planning to replace with elec when the time comes, and in the meantime I am fairly fanatical about ventilation fans and opening windows and doors whenever it is used.

Fine particulate matter is completely invisible.

Populations were much smaller, but thousands died from air pollution, hence the ''clean air act''.

It's not the smell - woodturners are particularly bad because of the door being periodically opened which lets a lot of fine ash etc out into the room.

I still like them and would have one (and have needed to in past houses) but there's no point letting our emotions about it take the place of facts.

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy it's some information and questions not a personal attack.

@paradiseonfire she wouldn't "hate you." Again with the need to make everything personal. Childish.

Average life expectancy was far lower.

Yeah? I live in Kathmandu where "Household burning of biomass fuel" is a major contributor to pollution, every winter when it gets cold the air turns to shit, far worse than the summer with just the traffic and industry pollution. Everyone who moves here gets coughs etc even with air purifiers running 24/7 at home and school, especially the kids. Thousands die from air pollution each year and people spend much of their lives feeling unwell. Any more anecdotes?

They should absolutely be banned in areas over a certain density including towns and villages as well as cities.

Use of a stove 30 days a year was found to increase lung cancer risk by 43%. Which is nothing compared to what people who use it as principle fuel do.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/06/indoor-wood-burning-raises-women-lung-cancer-risk-study

I'll never understand why people can't say I see the evidence but I'm going to do it anyway. Instead of, my opinions render evidence meaningless.

I hope you're joking. You must be, cos you must recognise that most people bbq outdoors. (I hate it in summer with loads going, but it's not the same risk.)

Solid fuel cookstoves massively affect the health of women worldwide who are stuck in small rooms using them. I have lived in places where this is the case and seen the effects. It's not all that funny really. You have a choice. Many don't or don't know the risks.

People have been using fires to keep warm since the beginning of time, and we are healthy and well.

I have an open fire and light it every night, it greatly aides my mental health in the winter, and prevents the need for heating the whole house. I wouldn’t be without it.

Every pleasure in life is targeted by eco warriors. I like my life, snd I am happy with the balance of risk versus contentment.

I’m utterly horrified they’re burning peat. That really is wanton environmental destruction and there is nothing renewable about it.

I'm bloody glad we have our wood burner as a couple of years ago, we were left with a broken boiler for five months over winter and it was our only source of heat.

Use of a stove 30 days a year was found to increase lung cancer risk by 43%. Which is nothing compared to what people who use it as principle fuel do.

But a 43% increase on a tiny number is still a tiny number - it just sounds scary.

You understand that this is a public forum where people are entitled to hold and express different views? And that people don't have to unwaveringly agree with you? I AM USING CAPITAL LETTERS TO MAKE YOU AGREE WITH ME. Is it working?

Independently verifiable though. The point was that the OPs reports weren't exactly balanced.

I was in a club having lunch and was fairly close to a wood burner. The manager came and opened the doors to put more wood in and I had a bad asthma attack.

I've used woodburners for the past 12 years, and I have neighbours who were using them all their lives into their late 90's. Just need to exercise a little commonsense and caution.