This isn't about "rural life". It's about villages, towns and cities. Where I live, everyone has gas central heating and we don't get significant power cuts, but a very large number of people have added a wood burner, and the number is growing. For some with access to cheap wood it may be about cost saving, but installing a wood burner isn't cheap, so I suspect that for very many people it's largely a lifestyle choice. And you are urging everyone to get a wood burner - not just people in isolated rural areas.
You may not open your car window and breathe in smoke when you drive through a village (or a town). The point is that if you are in a village or town in Scotland in the spring, winter or autumn you will breathe in smoke. The inhabitants of those villages and towns are living in a smoke-filled environment, and that smoke gets into their homes. One wood burner apparently produces the same amount of emissions as 75 lorries. That is what we are all breathing in. And no, that smoke doesn't all miraculously disperse. The smoke goes up the chimney and emerges into the cold air. It very quickly cools down and sinks to the ground and is breathed in by the neighbours (and probably by the people who are producing the smoke, who are also breathing it in when they put wood on the fire, etc).
From the Guardian:
"The burning of wood and coal in homes contributes to almost 2,500 deaths a year in the UK, analysis has found. Stopping unnecessary burning would save the NHS more than £54m a year, the experts concluded.
Wood-burning stoves and open fires are one the biggest sources of small pollution particles, which cause heart and lung disease, and their use has risen in recent years. The report also links this toxic air pollution to 3,700 cases of diabetes and 1,500 cases of asthma a year, although the health impacts are likely to be underestimated.
More than 90% of people have other sources of heating and only about 10% of people say they burn at home out of necessity. Many use the stoves and fires for their aesthetic appeal."
More and more people are having these stoves installed, and of course many of the very serious conditions these particles cause take years to develop, so the number of deaths and serious health conditions will rise.
So how about looking at the science - looking at the truth of the situation as you do with gender issues, rather than saying - oh, it's probably a conspiracy theory, the research is probably funded by oil companies, I think I heard somewhere that their surveys weren't very big but I don't have time to check that now, oh what about isolated cottages in the Highlands, etc etc). The fact is that for whatever reason you really like woodburners, despite knowing that they create very harmful pollution. So you are denying, fudging, diverting, making things up. Because it suits your agenda.
Wood burners linked to 2,500 deaths a year in the UK, analysis finds | Air pollution | The Guardian