Air quality monitoring sensors in Easton have shown that levels of air pollution have gone through the roof in the last week.
Campaigners at Residents Against Dirty Energy (RADE) who installed the initial sensors three years ago claim there is a direct link between the increase in wood burning stoves and the high levels of Particulate Matter air pollution.
In the last week the level of PM2.5, the fine particulate matter not visible to the naked eye but damaging to health, was recorded as being well above the World Health Organisation (WHO) limit on air pollution.
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According to the Taskforce for Lung Health, exposure to PM2.5 can cause illnesses like asthma, COPD, coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer and is caused by vehicles, industry, power generation and domestic heating.
Although the recent levels of air pollution are well above the internationally recognised limit, they are still considered legal in the UK due to the government setting the bar so low, the limits in the UK are currently twice as high as those recommended by WHO.
While there has been a heavy focus in Bristol on pollution caused by vehicles with the introduction of the clean air zone and moves towards pedestrianisation, campaigners at RADE believe that wood burning stoves are the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.
RADE co-founder, Stuart Phelps, who has been monitoring air pollution in Easton for the last five years, believes that the increase of PM2.5 pollution is directly linked to the growing popularity of wood burning stoves in the area:
“We started to see a pattern that correlated with people lighting stoves because it kicks off late afternoon, rises through the evening and disappears the following morning, the opposite to what would happen if it were traffic related.
“It doesn’t stop in the early evening when the rush hour traffic stops, it just keeps rising, it’s when people are at home and they light their fire.
“The levels of PM2.5 in Bristol has risen year on year for the last five years and that comes with the cold weather and it’s on a day when you have low wind.
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“Five years ago you hardly smelt wood smoke on the streets and now you smell it commonly all over.
“It’s the beginning of what people have feared in an era when wood burning is very popular, that we are heading towards a health crisis.
“There’s the impact on peoples’ lungs and if we start to see a rise in the number of people with asthma, that’s going to be a major problem.”
Bristol is now has one of the highest concentrations of air pollution censors, the first one that was installed by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The Defra air pollution sensor in St Pauls being the most prominent, is the one that tends to be monitored more closely by authorities and researchers.
This sensor has also recorded high levels of PM2.5 in the past week.
Dr Jo Barnes, a Senior Research Fellow at UWE who specialises in air quality management said that the cause of recent rise in air pollution is likely to be the result of a combination of factors.
She said, " The high concentrations experienced in the period highlighted in the St Paul’s AQI is likely due to the combination of low wind speeds and high pressure meaning that local sources of air pollution are likely to have built up.
"I cannot say what the dominant source is based on the data available, however, it is likely to be a combination of solid fuel/wood burning and road traffic."
Stuart, who was involved in setting up RADE over five years ago, took a central role in the campaign to prevent a diesel power station from being built near a local nursery.
But has also been vocal in his opposition to moves towards pedestrianisation in the area believing it to be bad for local businesses and a measure that would do little to protect the environment.
In recent years, Easton has become more popular with rising house prices going hand in hand with a changing demographic, Stuart believes that wood burners are popular among the newer homeowners.
“You can’t put a wood burning stove into a rented flat, you can’t put one into a council house or a housing association property.
“Only an owner occupier who can afford a wood burning stove can put one in.
“Nobody is asking people to die from hypothermia, what we’re saying is that if it’s your secondary form of heating, just don’t light it.”
In partnership with Saaf Hava and the European Space Agency (ESA), RADE will soon be adding additional sensors to the many in Easton they have installed in the last 5 years.
The new sensor, funded by the space agency, will use more sophisticated technologies allowing a wider range of pollutants to be detected.
“Interestingly enough, it uses exactly the same sensor for PM2.5 as the ones that we’ve been using for 5 years,” added Stuart.
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