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’ll follow the latest scientific research when considering my baby’s lung health, rather than some Mumsnet random but thanks all the same

All of our neighbours have log burners and we hate them. Our cold chimney draws all of their damned smoke into our room.
They are the worst.

Our cold chimney draws all of their damned smoke into our room.

Have you considered blocking the chimney? Or lighting a fire?

I think for me (and many of us) the choice this year is wood stoves and no or limited heating. I do choose woods carefully I buy kiln dried hardwood. I season and prepare windfall, gather sticks.

I can not afford to centrally heat my home at £1 a litre for heating oil so Wood it will be with a little central heating when it is freezing outside. This will be much better for me than a damp, cold, mouldy house.

My neighbours have wood burners. If they are burning and we aren't burning, we don't draw their smoke in. I'm thinking that PP must live in a terraced house in a rural area with little wind, so very sheltered hamlet somewhere.

I have small vessel lung disease and any smoke affects me quite badly and that includes wood burners, barbecues , bus exhausts etc . In the winter when people have wood burners alight I do find my chest is very tight when I walk the dog .

We were weeks away from getting a log burner installed, and then dd was diagnosed with asthma (She's 12, never thought getting so out of breath after exercise that she coupdnt breathe for hours after was abnormal, so didn't think to tell me, poor thing). We already live in a low air quality area, so there was just no question about cancelling the order. I'd rather be indebted to the energy company than bring more pollution into our own home.

@AndTwoFilmsByFrancoisTruffaut

You sound really passionate about this, and that's fine if its your thing. By stacks up I meant viewing it in the round. You are clearly v focussed on the one issue and your one conclusion stacks up for you. For others, with more variables and considerations (like staying warm and it's impact on getting ill) I'm not sure the scales would weigh out the same.

With the instability in both gas availability and prices, the last thing I'd be doing is removing an option to heat my home with basic, easily accessed renewable fuel.

I would never in a million years have a woodburner if we had mains gas.
I've had them for 40 years and they are a filthy PITA.

You need one of these.
www.chimneysheep.co.uk/

Diesel fumes is what affect me. I can cycle thru the bus-congested part of town feeling ok, but right afterwards my chest /breathing feels weird. I imagine living in central London is hell because it's so horribly full of diesel fumes. Even walking in central London the fumes are constant.

Open fires set off my asthma but our wood heated boiler doesn't. Can't even see any smoke come out of the chimney so it must burn pretty clean (and this isn't some fancy modern one, its old, decades old I think)

I am dreading this Winter. Small village, and pretty much everyone has log burners or wood fires. They also enjoy burning everything in their gardens. The village is full of smoke in the winter. You can't open your windows, put out washing, and yes, the bloody smoke DOES come down the chimney, in the same way wind comes down. We have installed a "chimney sheep" which helps!

Same @lljkk I really struggle when cycling near buses, especially if having to queue behind them at junctions.

Our wood burner is closed and gives nothing off inside the house. Our open grate is v smoky and often immediately know if anything like paper or anything has been checked on it as the smoke affects me startight away. The burner doesn't get to me in the same way.

Bonfires can be dreadful - people burn literally anything! Disgusting!

you don't use your cooker to heat your house though?

people don't seem to get the point that 'particulates' are so small as to be invisible to the human eye. So no smoke etc.

I was in a pub a while ago and the manager opened the door of the log burner to put more logs in. I had a bad asthma attack so now avoid log burners.

We have a whole house ventilation system now to filter out the shite pouring out of our neighbour's wood burning stoves. It's not a cheap solution but better than wheezing throughout winter and trips to hospital.

All the posts here that talk about instant breathing woes after being exposed to a briefly open log burner. You guys are very sensitive indeed.

In meantime, there's something about my wood burner (maybe every wood burner) that can expose a user and nearby people to loads of fine particulates. Daily. And that activity never gets mentioned even once in these threads. Odd.

www.politico.eu/article/gas-stove-killer-health-climate-pollution/
Gas hobs can produce methane.

Good. The Guardian is not the latest scientific research though.

MN is a bit weird about woodburners tbh.

There was a thread a while back about someone not wanting to take their baby to a family dinner at the pub because that particular pub had a wood burner. There were loads of YANBU in the replies!

Do you mind me asking which model you have? Thinking of getting one.

why isnt your chimney sealed up? Unless you have an open fire, there is no reason to not seal it up. Seems obvious to me.

I'm sure bonfires are much much worse for lung health than wood burns. My neighbours burn all sorts of shite including plastic...it friking well stinks and aggravates ds's asthma. I'd much rather bonfires were banned before woodburners.