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."

There are a lot of people on here justifying their wood burners by claiming that everything else is as bad or worse. It doesn't change the fact that wood burners are bad though.

We would never have a wood burner. We also got rid of our gas cooker (at great expense - probably wouldn't have done if we'd known what was coming with the cost of living) and don't use zoflora etc. There's only so much you can do, but that doesn't mean "oh well, might as well get a wood burner" iyswim.

I dont 'justify' our burner by saying other things are bad, I know that there is negligable impact on either of us by the fact that neither of our separate breathing conditions has been impacted since we had ours. We use ours all winter so we would notice if it did.

But ultimately I drive a car, have a gas hob, have gas heating, live next to someone who has an open coal fire, live near a main road and live. Living causes death.

Im also not convinced the research shows what people seem to suggest it does, I ask each thread and will continue to ask for the breakdown in different types of burning. Its the latest thing to be frightened of and consider evil.

Since the 50s, our air pollution as a country (there may be pockets where this is different) has improved year on year. Yet you wouldnt know this from the media

I think that wood burning stoves will produce some pollution. I also think sitting in a car/tube/bus/plane is worse than what you breathe in if using your wood burner correctly.

I do not use any cleaning products (only toilet cleaner when necessary) I do not use any perfume and have banned my husband/children using spray deodorant in the house. I have never used any form of air freshner. I take lung health very seriously as you can see. I do have a wood burner and will not stop using it. I also have an air pureifer (phillips) and it does not go on with the wood burner. I have gas central heating so do not use it for heating and really just a few times a year as very cosy and also looks nice in the house.

I think that there are much more damaging things to be worried about that people use EVERY DAY other than burning wood a few times a year in a wood burner.

Every parent here saying that they are worried about their childs lungs should be far more concerned about the general chemical concoction of chemicals that they come into contact with daily. This will include air freshner in school/family homes/perfume/deodorant/cleaning chemicals/sent in creams/baby powder/makeup (from parent)/FMA from carpets/sofas/clothing/cots/chemcials in foam mattress/chemicals in food to name but a few. We have not even touched on pesticides

This does not even begin to look into the actual chemicals that parents are rubbing onto their children on a daily basis and using to CLEAN their babies.

People have been burning wood for centuries and done ok - cancer rates are skyrocketing for other reasons.

Sorry for the rant but wood burning stoves are very low on the list of poisons you should be worried about.

check out

www.ewg.org.

Have a look at this

www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/campaigns/clean-air-day

and www.hetas.co.uk/consumer/advice-hub/advice-articles/what-cleaner-choices-can-you-make-for-clean-air-day/

So, you removed your gas cooker for fear of pollution, but if you’d known about the increased cost of living you would have kept it. Sounds a bit like double standards.
And it’s no different to those who are opting to use their wood burners to keep their bills down this winter. Those who burn correctly will already have paid for and seasoned the logs.

I wouldn’t have a wood burner if I was paid to. They are disastrous for the environment and fuck your lungs up terribly.

I do like it when the wood burner brigade get all uppity and annoyed that they’re not that great though

Always seems like someone’s burning one round by us. Can’t even open the windows for fresh air without the smell coming in. Used to love that smell in the country side. In the city it’s got an acrid edge to it. I live in a low emissions are but people dgaf then blame the government when their kids get asthma

How would I know if the burner had fucked up the lungs of a household member terribly? what would be the signs? And what would be the exposure required?

We live in an area where no-one has mains gas, for miles.

I have to choose from heating oil (about £1/litre up from 36p/l only a couple of years ago) and you have to buy at £700 min order, or burning wood. Or o guess I could buy electric plug in heaters of I wanted to really splash the cash..

We have both an open grate fire and a log burner. The burner is a closed system and v effective at keeping me and DC warm.

The members of our family who have resp conditions have a lot more to fear from being frozen night and day than they do the log burner.

If we all really engaged with respiratory risks then the absolute first thing we should all do is stop driving.

I'm getting a stove installed shortly. I'm reassured that the pollution level isn't significant in the house. I know plenty of people who use open fires and they are far worse.

I have an old draughty house that breathes too, so I'm not particularly worried. We live in the countryside and air quality is generally very good here. I couldn't bear to live on a busy road in a town. Our nearby town has lorries going through the middle of it and cute cottages right on the roadside. They're often a filthy colour from all the traffic going by, and I often think about children walking to and from school there. That can't be good for them at all.

As with everything, the facts are the facts, but some people can rationalise, minimise, and whatabouterise anything.

There's got to be some whataboutery here though hasn't there? It's not a decision you can take in isolation?

Log burners have negative impacts on lung health and the environment.

Are they better or worse than other ways of burning things - open grates for eg

Are they better or worse than other ways of heating like gas, oil, electricity? For health? For the environment?

Are they more or less affordable than other methods?

Etc etc.

We all know my past stuff associated with our lives are probably not good on ethical, moral, financial, environmental, social, health, grounds. But we all weigh up the factors and try to arrive at a least worst conclusion.

We too live rurally with no mains gas. We have LGP heating and a massive wood-burner which when lit warms the vast majority of the house. I’m aware that they may not be great for your health but we will continue to use. Non of us smoke, work from home so don’t commute and live in a national park so no air pollution. You have to weight up the risks in life and decide what suits your circumstances!