Emissions of toxic air pollution from wood burning in UK homes has more than doubled in the past decade, according to official government statistics.
The report also showed that solid fuel burning in homes, which includes a small proportion of coal, is the single biggest source of PM2.5 pollution, which refers to particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns in size. Road transport, industry and burning wood and other biomass to produce electricity all produce fewer PM2.5 emissions.
Experts said wood burners had become “middle-class status symbols” and that the government should regulate their sale in urban areas. Last week, the mayor of London in effect banned wood burners from new housing developments.
Wood burning in towns and cities is a big contributor to the harmful particles, which have been linked to a wide range of health problems, including heart and lung disease, dementia and mental illness in children. Dirty air causes 26,000 to 38,000 early deaths a year in England.
The government report said: “Due to the small size of many of the particles that form PM, some of these toxins may enter the bloodstream and be transported around the body, lodging in the heart, brain and other organs. Therefore, exposure to PM can result in serious impacts to health.”
The rise in emissions from wood burners and biomass burning has offset the reductions seen from the virtual end of coal burning in power stations and tighter emissions standards for vehicles and factories, according to the government data. PM2.5 levels have remained the same for the last 10 years.
The data shows that home wood burning causes 21% of PM2.5 emissions in the UK and rose by 124% between 2011 and 2021. Last year’s report from the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said the rise between 2010 and 2020 was 35%.
Officials said revisions are made each year to the data back to 1990 to reflect improvements in methods of estimating emissions. This year, emissions in 2010 were revised down and emissions in 2020 were revised up, while PM2.5 emissions also rose from 2020 to 2021. These factors in combination explain the rise from 35% to 124%, they said, meaning the rise was previously underestimated.
“The increase in PM2.5 from domestic wood burning is a worrying trend that cannot continue if we are serious about protecting both the environment and public health,” said Ross Matthewman, head of policy and campaigns at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
“Now is the time for the UK government to regulate the sale and use of domestic solid wood burners in urban areas where there are on-grid heating alternatives,” he said.
“Rather than providing heating to homes, they have become middle-class status symbols, which harm the quality of our air, damage the environment and threaten public health.”
Even government approved “eco” wood burners produce 450 times more pollution than gas heating, according to a report by the chief medical officer for England, which said the vast majority of the 1.5m households that burn wood do so for aesthetic reasons.
The dangers posed by wood burners in urban areas have become increasingly clear in recent years. Emissions from wood burners result in almost £1bn in health costs a year and are responsible for nearly half the cancer risk caused by urban air pollution.
The government recently encouraged councils to use their powers to issue householders with £300 on-the-spot fines for flouting air pollution rules by burning logs at home. However, English councils have issued only 17 fines over six years, despite more than 18,000 complaints, as it is difficult and expensive to prove guilt.
A Defra spokesperson said: “This government has delivered significant reductions in emissions since 2010. In that time, emissions of fine particulate matter have fallen by 10%, with nitrogen oxides down by 45%.
“One of the drivers for the 6% rise in PM2.5 emissions in 2021 [compared with 2020] is increased activity post Covid-19 as society emerged from lockdowns,” the spokesperson said.
“Clearly, there is much more to do to tackle this pollutant. That’s why we have legislated to restrict the sale of wet wood and coal, and our new Environmental Improvement Plan sets out further action to meet our long-term targets and ambitious interim targets for PM2.5.”
• This article was amended on 15 February 2023 to remove an incorrect line stating that pollution from the burning of biomass in power stations had increased by 379% between 2010 and 2021; that figure relates to biomass burning at industrial sites.
