Wood smoke making kids ill

[Sallybun]

I live in a smoke free zone in a popular tourist city. Over the past year the popularity of wood burning stoves has gone insane. So much so that our entire house is now filled with acrid wood smoke every evening. My throat stings it’s so intense and both my children have had constant coughs.

Not so much an AIBU but what can be done about it? The council don’t regulate it and neither do my neighbours - otherwise they wouldn’t have got wood burners in the first place! They burn from 4pm through to 10pm ish and we can’t seal up our windows as we need some air to breathe! Feeling desperate.

@Superhansrantowindsor there has certainly been a lot of talk about possible banning, or greater restrictions to try and clean up the air.

I think a wood burner can be a good way of heating, they can look stunning and have a cosy vibe BUT at what cost health wise to the householder who has one AND to the local neighbourhood?

They're also extremely ugly. I hate them.

My dad had a lung disease all his life and this kind of stuff would affect him. I don’t think people think about the health implications (of them, their kids or anyone else) when getting these.

Do Environmental Enforcement Officers work on your council?

No, she expects them not to burn anything because it’s illegal.

People with fires in smoke free areas are selfish twats.

@Sallybun. Are you in Bath? It stinks walking down residential streets at this time of year, I think all the houses must have them. We go to a weekly activity in a suburban neighbourhood and from October the stench is pretty bad. Where I live we get nothing at all because we aren’t allowed to install them (new eco houses)

I emphasise completely. My neighbour has a wood burner and uses it from 8am - 10pm from around Sept/October to April/May. Completely ridiculous and anti social but they don’t care. They installed it as the only source of heating for their ground floor extension and are home all day. Also means that the flue is window height as emerges from ground floor. All completely within regulations would you believe (those need to be revisited and changed in my opinion!)

We have to keep all windows shut (and sealant on) during these months and bought really powerful air purifiers and dehumidifiers.

Unfortunately, some people are very selfish and don’t consider others. It’s hard to imagine unless you are unfortunate enough to live near one!

Ironically, these neighbours posted a rant on the local Facebook pages complaining about a one off bonfire nearby in the summer and saying how selfish it was with the smoke?!!! Insane!

They also haven’t twigged that their permanent, winter hacking coughs could be attributed to their burner!

If you approach the council then they will send out a letter advising them of rules and consequences of non compliance. In my experience, this makes the issue a bit better … for a while.

Is it reading or comprehension you have a problem with, or both?

I do, but I don’t live in a built up area. I only burn kiln dried timber, have the fire serviced every year, drive an electric car and try to avoid flying. I have an air quality monitor in the house. When I come home from work and pull up outside the house, I cannot tell if DH has made a fire or not from smelling smoke in the air, I only know once I go in the house and feel the warmth.
The problem isn’t the fires themselves, it’s people burning the wrong wood and not having their fires serviced regularly. If I saw a house that was using a fire that was producing smoke from the chimney, I would certainly report them to the Council as we live in a smokeless zone.
Banning something that, when used correctly, is pretty much harmless is just plain daft.

A smokeless zone doesnt mean you can’t have a wood burner.
https://www.gov.uk/smoke-control-area-rules

Loving all the doubters who can’t / won’t possibly understand/ care about the impact of their actions on others.

The research tells us it’s bad, the anecdotal evidence tells us the impact it has on people but that’s hard to hear when you love your atmospheric and homely fire and can get free wood. The cognitive dissonance is real so the response is to deny it completely or take the piss. 👍👍👍👍👍

definitely agree. We have a wood burner rurally too, only burn kiln dried wood but I can smell the smoke outside when we're clouded in/ wind goes certain directions.

Keep complaining. Be conscientious and persistent. Check which local authority / agency has responsibility for enforcing regulations e.g. Council, Environment Agency. Keep a diary of times, effects and, if you can, where the smoke is coming from.

Laws on clean air exist to protect public health and save lives - true scientifically and legally.

Good luck OP.

Def get a hepa filter but it’s illegal for them to burn unseasoned wood. I am a wood stove owner (sorry, but our heating doesn’t touch the sides of the freezingness of our Victorian house) but I wouldn’t dream of burning anything but professionally dried wood. And we got the most efficient and low pollution stove there was. You can somewhat responsibly own a stove. Another problem is diy installations that don’t use the proper materials again leading to inefficient burning and higher pollutants. What a shame about the kids room being adjacent to the neighbours chimney. I’d feel horribly guilty if I were your neighbours. Surely that’s not allowed.

Reading this makes me wonder if our neighbours might have installed a wood burner. The rooms that attach to their house - the living room and our bedroom) - have smelled smoky for the last few weeks, mainly at night. DD is complaining of a sore throat.

I’m not going to get an air purifier as the last time we had one it killed some of our house plants, and we have loads of them now.

I’ll have to go round and ask.

Why do you bet that?

May be of interest: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55330945.amp

We have two big air purifiers for the same problem but they’re not a miracle cure. Ours went down to 0% last weekend - turns out our neighbours chimney has a crack so the smoke was coming in to ours. Thankfully they’re decent people so won’t burn until they’ve had it fixed.

You’d need a big air purifier in every room, closed windows, and new filters often, which aren’t cheap if you want the smoke-removing ones… and even then, if they’re not burning good wood and your house is letting it in, I don’t think it’d be enough.

I only have one neighbour who heats their house with a wood burner and I can smell it all down the street. Absolutely reeks. Definitely a big source of pollution.

Anyone defending this just enjoys a fire!!! I enjoy a fire, it's a very primal human thing and there is nothing quite like the cosiness of the warmth and glow. However, in a busy city, 100s of people wanting to hark back to a simpler time adds up to a lot of air pollution.

There is a real desire amongst a lot of people to be able to live independently and off grid, and I do know folk who've genuinely achieved this, wood burning is part of that as well. I massively get it. However, if we actually wanted to solve problems like pollution, working together and using innovative technologies like solar, wind etc is what we need, not going all freeman-on-the-land and burning lead-polluted off-cuts from building sites in built up areas.

Short-sighted, selfish behaviour.

I fucking hate wood burners in cities. It should be illegal. There's no good excuse for using a mediaeval fuel and it's so antisocial. And no, clean dry wood is still poluting and carcinogenic before all the apologist I'm alright Jacks pile in

I believe you.

1 GET THAT FILTER. It’s true that poor air quality has health impacts. It’s not fair you should have to pay out but poor air has lifelong impacts and you must try to reduce those for your kids

2 Make this the council’s problem too. Get envtl health involved. Send them the readings from the air purifier. Do this every week. Get your councillor involved. Write to your MP.

3 Join Mums for Lungs and get some of their posters etc and put them up locally

They are so environmentally unfriendly. Cant believe people still get them put in.

All our near neighbours have and use either a coal fire or wood burning stove. We never smell the smoke indoors. We don’t live in a town or city.

However, I do remember when smokeless zones in urban areas were rigidly enforced. They were set up for a reason.

If your smelling smoke from a neighbour attached to you I'd be worried about a leak in the chimney flue. That is dangerous as it's a fire risk. Definitely talk to the neighbour in that case, and if you have an open flue get it checked by a chimney sweep even if you don't use it - they set off a smoke bomb and check which chimney it comes out of. If it comes out of your neighbour's chimney (or one of yours it shouldn't connect to) then the flues have a leak

You should get the chimney swept every year even if not in use - can get blocked by debris/bird's nests which is a fire hazard

The whole street stinks here with the smell of wood burners. You go out and even if it's only for a few minutes you come back in stinking of it. I can understand they make your house feel cozy and are cheaper to run but they're polluting the air. Feels like we've gone backwards with things like this.