Effects of woodburners on lung health?

[stirling]

Hi, not sure where to post this.
DP is a carpenter and is adamant that burning clean dry wood like oak will not pollute the air or cause lung problems . He has access to lots of offcuts and wants to heat an outdoor garden studio of ours with this as it's really hard and £££ to keep warm with electric heating.

I'm asthmatic and prone to lung infections, covid hits my lungs hard as do most flues .

Read below text in a Guardian article and makes sense to me but dp says it's all propoganda.

Any insight on this matter? Thanks
"Tiny particle pollution (as in wood burning) is harmful to health as it can enter the bloodstream, be carried around the body and lodge in organs."

I have various lung conditions (asthma, bronchiectasis) and decided to mothball our stove 3 years ago, haven't used it since.
However I we will have to use it this winter and I have stocked up on logs.

Drs don’t just randomly make stuff up!

Dr Nick Hopkinson, medical director at Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation, said both indoor and outdoor pollution caused by wood burning stoves caused serious health issues, from breathing problems to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer
www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/01/avoid-using-wood-burning-stoves-if-possible-warn-health-experts?fbclid=IwAR1jWDc84wrkdV5fWlUXi9kBlo-sq4qAvooJYym95_IIAJF-0h9JIp0693A

Recent research showing the mechanism by which air pollution causes cancer: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62797777.amp

Is it better or worse than other options though? What you burn definitely has an impact too - treated wood, and unseasoned wood burns v differently to quality dry, seasoned stuff.

Realistically,.many more people are going to use anything they've got to stay warm this winter.

Humans have burnt would for heat, light and cooking forever...and are likely to continue to do so especially when other methods are prohibitively expensive

Gas cookers are bad for respiratory health, if people are worried about wood burners they need to look at everything else as well that can cause them issues. Gas cookers leak methane even when turned off.

Well this might put me off getting one installed so that's probably a good thing

I asked this on another thread but it would be helpful OP if you can set out the research showing the emissions from the following

• seasoned wood in a wood burner
• unseasoned wood in a wood burner
• wood products/not pure wood in a wood burner
• seasoned wood in an open fire
• unseasoned wood in an open fire
• wood products on an open fire
• all of the above categories on a bonfire
• all of the above categories in a DEFRA approved appliance

and then compare them all together and compare them with other sources of heating and eating. We have a gas hob for example which no doubt has emissions from it

Love ours but we’re not using it anymore as I’m pregnant and worry about the baby’s tiny lungs. We are planning to rip it out and replace with a gas fire (that looks like a log fire). Won’t be as beautiful as the wood burner but we have to face reality. Wood burners are so so bad for one’s health 😢

You do realise gas has omissions as well that are bad for health?

The general statement that logburners are bad for health really annoys me. There are so many variables. Modern burners have a catalytic converter, and that combined with well seasoned dry wood means pollution is kept down.
Unfortunately there are may people burning green wood and other crap which gives the whole thing a bad name
Your baby’s lungs will be fine, as it’s a closed system @AndTwoFilmsByFrancoisTruffaut

You're happy to have an open gas fire, with gas being lit and flaming away open in the room, compared to a sealed wood burner, DEFRA approved (I assume) burning dry seasoned wood in a closed system?

This makes no sense

Remember to worry about VoCs causing bad indoor air quality.

Marker pens, paints, aerosol deordorant. It's quite a long list of products to avoid. Remember next time you think about using ZoFlora, painting a room, putting in new carpet, reaching for a glue stick, "what perfume suits me" etc.

Better not walk down any busy streets either.

Thanks for all your replies everyone. This is quite an eye opening read

The air quality in this country is atrocious. But that's off on a tangent! I've read articles about wood burners being bad for lungs and health. But my opinion is that they've got to cover lots of variables in that. People burn all sorts of crap. We'll be using ours more than normal this year. I buy dry, seasoned native wood from a woodland that's managed for conservation.

We bought an air purifier that kicks in the air quality drops. It rarely kicks in when we have the log burner going.

The research shows the worsts effects are when refuelling (opening the door), and worse if you stand there poking it about etc. If you refuel quickly, and shut the door swiftly then the air purifier doesn't come on at all. If you have to adjust the logs it usually comes on but finishes purifying the air in the room in about 5 mins.

However I have noticed it kicks in big time if our cleaner has been in and has used sprays around the house.

Gawd, that reminds me of my mother moaning about car pollution as I lived near a busy road... inbetween lighting up her cigarettes. <shrug>

Um, I'm not sure this all stacks up tbh.

LadyVictoriaSponge how does burning methane produce nitrogen oxide? Methane is CH4 - it doesn’t contain any nitrogen in the first place, it simply oxidises to CO2 and water. Where did you find that article about gas hobs?

how does burning methane produce nitrogen oxide? Methane is CH4 - it doesn’t contain any nitrogen in the first place

Air does.

My husband is an arborist which means all of our wood is free and we have a huge log burner that heats most of our home. It's massively important to make sure you use the correct types of wood eg ash/cherry/oak and avoid things like laburnum which is poisonous.
It's also important to make sure it's seasoned properly, we have had oak which has taken over two years to season but other things like ash can be much quicker, if unsure about how to tell it's best to get a moisture detector.
we have an air purity meter also because we have oil fired boiler system and it does not give off any bad readings when using the log burner which we do literally all winter.
Most of the problem comes when people have no clue about what they are doing and burn any old rubbish, if done correctly it's fine.

Yes we do realise this. They are not as bad as the wood burner, we have done a lot of research: the gas fire is better for us and the environment by far.

Um, well I’m sure it does 🤷🏻‍♀️

Gas fireplaces burn more cleanly and produce fewer polluting emissions. Wood-burning fireplaces typically a huge amount of particulate emissions compared to gas, which produces up to 99% less emissions. Google it if you are still not sure it ‘stacks up’.

It really isn’t fine though. I’ve always lived rurally and always had a wood burner. We have our own dried seasoned oak log store, we know what we’re doing after nearly 50 years.

But you keep deluding yourself. Cherry logs or not, you are breathing in carcinogenic particulates however superior you believe your wood stock to be.

Academic paper below.

www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/12/1326

Oh dear 🙄