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THE U government has announced plans to tacle sources of air pollution, including popular wood-burning stoves, but its Clean Air Strategy, which was unveiled last wee, fails to address the real problem.
Although pollution from woodburning stoves is a relatively new problem for the U, it has long been a major one in countries such as Canada and New ealand. And the tae-home message from them as to controlling the release of harmful particulates in the air is simple ban wood burning.
“There does not seem to be a limit below which there is no impact on health,” says Gary Fuller at ing’s College London, whose team has shown that wood burning is now the source of a third of particulate pollution in U cities.
As New Scientist reported last year, families with wood burners are liely to be eposed to the highest levels of pollution and their neighbours are net in the firing line, given that the particulates produced can easily escape from homes. Despite this, the U government isn’t planning a ban. Instead, it wants “to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels”, such as wet wood. What’s more, lots of people with wood burners don’t buy wood from shops. Instead, they scrounge it from wherever they can, with building waste one popular source. This is a disaster in pollution terms as treated or painted wood can release highly toic chemicals when burned. The plan is also to “ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022”. But even the cleanest stove produces eight times as much pollution as a diesel truc, says Fuller.
Some cities actually required old wood stoves to be replaced with cleaner new ones. That has helped, but wood burning remains a major source of pollution, says Fuller. In most cases, conven