Fuel Good facts
Air quality
In recent years, research published in the UK has shown the huge contribution that wood burning has to the increase of particulate air pollution (in particular PM2.5) at local level.
Kings College and the National Physics Laboratory estimates that wood burning contributes to local PM2.5 in cities like London and Birmingham was somewhere between 23 and 31%. At national level, DEFRA’s latest published data estimates that domestic wood and coal burning to be the major source of national PM2.5 emissions – responsible for 27% of national PM2.5 emissions - with most emissions from this source come from households burning wood in closed stoves and open fires.
In Oxford 66% of fine particulates come from domestic burning, compared with only 21% of particulates coming from transport.
In January 2021, Oxford City Council approved an updated air quality action plan for the city.
The action plan recognises for the first time the issue of wood burning and introduces for the first time specific measures to deal with wood smoke emissions.
This includes the use of gas heating and cookers as well as solid fuel stoves, but you can make a quick impact on this figure by cutting comfort heating use of wood burners and by burning better.
Harmful health impacts
The city of Oxford has historically been subject to poor air quality. Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), which is mainly emitted by transport, is the pollutant of main concern and continues to break the current UK legal limit. However, several studies have highlighted the harmful health impacts to Oxford residents, from long term exposure to anthropogenic particulate air pollution – also known as particulate matter/particulate pollution. In 2019, 5.52% of all deaths in people in Oxford aged 30+ occur due to long-term exposure to particulates (PM2.5).
Oxford is compliant with the legal limit values associated to PM10 and PM2.5, however there is no safe level of air pollution. In particular, particulate pollution has been found to make airways inflamed, bringing on asthma symptoms and in the long-term can increase the risk of heart and respiratory disease.
While wood burning stoves can provide a cheaper alternative to gas or electric heating, domestic wood burning has been found to triple the effect of harmful pollution particles inside your home.
