The UK government has today announced plans to tackle sources of air pollution, including trendy wood-burning stoves, but its fails to address the real problem.
While pollution from wood-burning stoves is a relatively new problem for the UK 鈥� they became fashionable a few years ago 鈥� it has long been a major source of air pollution in countries such as Canada and New Zealand. And the take-home message from their efforts to control the release of harmful particulates in the air is simple: ban wood burning.
鈥淭here does not seem to be a limit below which there is no impact on health,鈥� says Gary Fuller of King鈥檚 College London, whose team has shown that .
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As 快猫短视频 reported last year, families with wood burners are likely to be exposed to the highest levels of pollution, as even the best stoves can produce very high levels of indoor pollution. Their neighbours are next in the firing line, given that the particulates produced are not confined to one home.
No ban on burners
Despite this, the UK government isn鈥檛 planning a ban. Instead, it wants 鈥渢o prohibit sale of the most polluting fuels鈥�, such as wet wood. But even dry wood is highly polluting. What鈥檚 more, lots of people with wood burners don鈥檛 buy their wood from shops. Instead, they scrounge it from wherever they can, with skips of building waste being one popular source. This is a disaster in pollution terms, as treated or painted wood can release extremely toxic chemicals when burned.
The plan is also to 鈥渆nsure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022鈥�. But even the cleanest stoves produce eight times more pollution than diesel trucks, says Fuller. In other words, having a neighbour with a wood burner is like having eight trucks sitting in your street with their engines idling all night.
Oh, and if you鈥檙e thinking burning wood is at least better for the climate, you鈥檙e wrong. In most cases, sticking with gas central heating and insulating your home well is better in global-warming terms than switching to a wood burner.
