Official U.K. Figures Show Air Pollution From Stoves And Fireplaces Has Doubled

Fireplace with lit fire facing four poster bed with red floral pattern cover. (Photo by: Jumping … [+] Rocks/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Environmental health experts have called for action after official figures showed air pollution in the U.K. from wood burning stoves and fireplaces has doubled in a decade.

Figures released this week by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) shows emissions of fine particulate matter – known as PM2.5 – from domestic wood burning, have increased by 124% between 2011 and 2021.

The official figures also show emissions from fuel burning on industrial sites has increased by 379% between 2010 and 2021, and now account for represent 18% of total PM2.5 emissions in the country.

Emissions from agriculture accounted for 87% of total ammonia emissions in 2021, according to the figures.

And emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), Nitrous Oxide (NOx), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), were all below domestic and international emission reduction commitment levels.

Ross Matthewman, head of policy and campaigns at Chartered Institute for Environmental Health said the rise in PM2.5 emissions from domestic wood burning was a “worrying trend” which cannot continue.

Matthewman added the U.K. Government should start regulate the sale and use of domestic solid wood burners in urban areas where there are on-grid heating alternatives.

“Rather than provide heating to homes, they have become middle-class status symbols which harm the quality of our air, damages the environment and threatens public health,” he said.

In the past, wood-burning stoves have been compared to “wolf in a sheep’s clothing”because they appear to be cosy and comforting, whilst actually being a tremendous source of air-borne pollution.

In December, the U.K. government published a series of new targets, including a commitment to cut average PM 2.5 concentration levels in England to 10 µg m-3 or below by 2040.

Speaking in January, environment secretary Thérèse Coffey said she “would have loved” to have made the target to achieve levels of 10 micrograms by 2030 instead.

But she added “the evidence shows” it cannot achieve that everywhere by the end of the decade, particularly in London.

Today (15 February) also marks 10 years since the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah, who died aged nine from an asthma attack caused by air pollution. Though Ella is the only person to have air pollution officially listed on their death certificate in the U.K.

The chief executive of the charity Asthma + Lung U.K., Sarah Woolnough said in a statement that a decade on, polluted air is still so dirty it could be putting children and their lungs at risk.

Woolnough added that while some progress has been made in the past decade to clean up toxic air in Britain, much of the air we all breathe is still so polluted that it breaches international guidelines, including in areas by nurseries, schools and hospitals.

“It wouldn’t be acceptable if children up and down the country were drinking dirty water, so we cannot sit back as another generation of children are forced to grow up breathing dirty air,” said Woolnough.

“We need local and national governments to come together to show bold leadership on cleaning up our dangerously polluted air.”