Pollution from wood burning

[HelenUnderwood]

I am really concerned about the pollution from wood burning, even the latest eco stoves which still produce really small particles that get even deeper into lungs.

We are surrounded by them and some neighbours have taken delivery of treated wood (illegal to burn).

There's some really strong evidence confirming the health impact of burning wood, woodsmokepollution.org Doctors and scientists against wood burning. Gary Fuller The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution and yet it is a growing problem exacerbated by fuel prices (mind you, wood doesn't come about quickly, it takes years to grow and hours to burn).

What can be done? Burning wood is worse than diesel fumes. Help!!!!

Telegraph . Soontobe60 any better? Or there is a piece about in the independent. Or is it just like smoking in the 1970s when people didn’t really want to believe it was causing cancer

You are welcome to enjoy the kerosene fumes off my oil burning boiler instead if you like. Just sitting in the garden I constantly smell fumes off the tank. mmmmm yum.

The risk if inhaling tiny particles is at the stage when you open the door to refuel the stove. There's a bit of draught so it would make sense that some contaminated air comes into the room directly at the person putting a new log on the fire.

We used our a lot last year and, depending on temperatures, will rely on it a lot this year as well.
Apart from the fact it looks nice, financially it makes sense to use it. Logs and all the extras have already been paid for and delivered.

It's definitely not the most environmental friendly heating method on the basis that the logs have been kiln dried, plus the energy used to cut the trees in the first place and transport involved.

We will absolutely not stop using ours.

But I can see that there will be usage of the wrong wood across the country. Worse, I can see some people using theirs because they happen to have one in the house, never used it and wouldn't necessarily apply safety rules consistently.

Cooking on gas stoves is a toxic activity. Working in a commercial kitchen would be quite damaging on lungs. Cooking a lot at home on a gas cooker is most likely not good either, despite extractor fans.

Probably carpets and soft furnishings are quite damaging to our health and to our pets' health too. I'm convinced washing softeners are also bad along with all the other strongly household fragranced products.

We all use some or all of the above on a daily basis. There is a lot that could be banned.

Mine has been purely decorative.

Until this year.

Ive just taken a delivery of wood which will we me through the winter and cost me £390. My gas bill normally in winter is £400-500 per month (Dec, Jan & feb)so god-knows what it'll be this year.

I do agree with you, but with increasing cost of heating my home few of us will have much option.

The increase in power bills make it a no brainer for me. Burn wood and stay warm. People currently don't have the luxury of making good choices for health or the environment, but just surviving. This is the position we've been,out into by the power companies, and the lack of alternatives.

Can i ask a question to OP and the other posters who are in the it should be banned camp (and im not trying to be argumentative) are you in a good financial position where the increase in bills wont really affect you? And if not how do you plan on warming your homes this winter?

I think the issue about whether people can afford alternative forms of heat like electric and gas are a bit of a red herring.

For us this year, our wood is free but Im asking for the evidence of the break down in 'wood burning' pollution and not finding this, its not forthcoming

I dont know that its a major polluter until the breakdown is sourced because although someone said about its not the most environmentally friendly thing, that poster uses the comparison of using kiln dried wood. We dont use kiln dried we use seasoned wood, I personally think kiln dried wood is not a good use of resources.

As others have said, to use a gas hob is quite polluting and thats open in your kitchen.

We use our log burner with kiln dried logs in a rural area. Many around us have log burners. I have asthma but notice no bad effects from the burning wood and I want to be warm, especially given the price of energy. If you want someone to blame I suggest you blame the politicians who failed to ensure the UK's energy security over many years.

Our wood is free, zero transport costs or emissions no kiln drying. It’s about as clean an energy source as they come from an environmental perspective, in fact until last year we got a payment from the government for using biomass heating.

It's the particles that get released when you burn it that cause health problems for people - it may be carbon neutral but there is more to environmental safety than just carbon

The new ones have catalytic converters in them to keep pollution to a minimum.

We've got a wood burner - have had it for about 7 years and although I'm aware of some of the issues highlighted, I'm genuinely baffled by the thought that it's smoky/smelly and people can tell when we've got it lit - I've never noticed any smell or smoke outside our house when it's on? We only buy and burn dry/seasoned wood - usually buy it (seasoned) the year before for the following year, so it's lower than 20% moisture level. We haven't lit it yet this year (thankfully still warm where we are) but when I do, I'm going to stand outside and check whether it's noticeable - honestly don't think it is, but if it is, that would probably put me off - although our plan for this winter is to keep the central heating off and just use the wood burner plus an electric throw for us to use in the rooms the heat doesn't reach...

Yeah you’ll get used to the smell, I can tell when a neighbour further down in front starts burning, my windows will be shut but the smell seeps in through things like the bathroom extractor, trickle vents etc & I get a cough. Bloody wood burning stoves, it stinks, I can’t open my windows, you’re like weed smokers they think everyone can’t smell them smoking their stinky shit, oblivious to others, nose blind, you’re deluded though like them thinking others can’t smell it!

Yes and it's bonkers when they are trying to make us carbon neutral

Isn’t burning wood carbon neutral? The trees absorb carbon when they grow and it’s released when they are burned. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

Of course it smells! And of course it is noticeable. Very odd to think otherwise unless you have no sense of smell.

I really like the smell. Reminds me of home, which was incredibly rural with no mains gas or water and limited electricity! Open fires and woodburners were a necessity.

We have no mains water, gas, or electricity.

Our wood burning stove is here to stay.

Our next door neighbour has an open fire.

On days when I come home and OH has lit our fire I cant smell that in the street, ours is a stove

On days when I come home and the neighbour has their fire going (I can always tell because I hear the stoking in the chimney area) but we havent, I can smell theirs, moreso when they're using coal

Like another poster said above, our chimney never has smoke coming out of it, its always clear, thats the sign of a good clean burn.

We live rurally, lots of wood burning goes on around us, wood burning stoves don’t bother me but the constant bonfires are very annoying. I’d rather bonfires were banned than stoves as the pollutions worse from burning wet wood and rubbish and I keep having to re wash my washing.

We have a Honeywell air purifier we run year round, it helps with hay fever in the summer and wood smoke in the winter.

You are never going to get everything that causes air pollution banned so best to make efforts to reduce their effects on you instead

We burn seasoned wood on an open fire. Our neighbour once remarked that we never use the fire. When I told him that it was lit every evening during the winter, he didn’t believe me at first because he said he had never seen any smoke coming out of the chimney.

Ime the smokeless smells more, the amount of cement that's left in the ashes has to be dealt with too.
ours is an original stove with a converter and we buy seasoned from a tree surgeon and season again for a year. We burn smokeless ovoids and try to minimise environment impact but many homes in our area still rely on solid for heat because the houses were designed around the chimneys. (Pit village)

@LarryBlackmonsCodpiece totally agree. The fact that someone is allowed to have such a negative and inconsiderate affect on their neighbours is staggering. If it were noise or harrasment you could report it and get something done, but having a vent churning out acrid smoke than 5 meters from a neighbours windows and vents is somehow ok 🤔

Wood burning stoves count as carbon neutral.

No new build should need a wood burning stove, so yes they should be banned. Bonfires are massively polluting and smokey.

More people will be using wood-burners this winter. I envisage we will use our more than ever.

We live in a village with no gas and most of my immediate neighbours have wood-burners.

Our stove is Defra approved and we burn only seasoned wood. It's not illegal and we are entitled to heat our home.

My neighbour just took delivery of 2 trucks full of unseasoned logs from a tree surgeon.
Last winter was our first in this house and we could barely breathe for the stinking black smoke pouring out of his chimneys straight through our vents. We can't open windows, put washing out or use our garden while he's burning fires most of the day until late at night. Walking into or out of the house leaves me coughing and stinking of smoke as it pours out of his low chimneys (our house is a storey higher) straight at our doors.

It really pisses me off and we complained to the council earlier this year when he was also burning plastics, so it's on record for if we need to complain this winter too. Not that anything will actually get done about it 🙄