We don’t live in the city or have gridlocked streets (apart from occasionally during the great bus exodus from Perins), so you might think air quality isn’t really an issue that affects Alresford. However, domestic wood burning is a major and growing source of air pollution in the UK. A recent study showed a very high prevalence of wood burners in the Winchester district, with Alresford and Itchen Valley topping the local leader board with an estimated 33.3% of homes burning wood!
Many of us love a ‘real’ fire. There is something almost hypnotic about the dancing flames and soft glow, the crackling sounds and smells that evoke feelings of winter, comfort and Christmas – but woodsmoke is in fact extremely dirty and contains a cocktail of nasties, including benzene, arsenic, formaldehyde, dioxins and carbon monoxide – as well as fine particulates which lodge in the lungs. Lung cancer is rising among people who have never smoked, and recent studies found that domestic solid fuel burning contributes to almost 2,500 deaths a year in the UK. Another study found higher wood stove usage was associated with 70% higher incidence of lung cancer and a higher incidence of breast cancer too.
Similar to cigarette smoking, there is an effect from ‘passive wood smoke’. A single log burner can noticeably worsen neighbourhood air quality. The smoke lingers, and can enter nearby homes, impacting the health of residents who don’t burn wood at all.
As well as the health costs, there are environmental costs. Whilst wood is renewable, in most cases burning wood for fuel is not sustainable. When you burn wood, you release in minutes the carbon that a tree has spent decades, sometimes centuries, absorbing. New trees take a very long time to recapture the carbon released by burning the old ones, and in the middle of a climate crisis, we simply don’t have decades to spare.
The stove industry likes to claim that wood burning is “carbon neutral” but in reality, for the same amount of heat, wood actually emits more CO₂ than oil or gas! So, the idea that it’s a clean, climate‑friendly fuel just doesn’t stack up. Most of the wood burned in UK homes isn’t local at all. Much of it is imported from Eastern Europe, and some comes from ancient forests, cut down to feed your burner.
Our tips to reduce your impact on air quality
1. Stop or reduce wood burning:
- Don’t have bonfires – use local garden waste and refuse services or compost instead
- Use alternative heating in your home like a heat pump – or a gas boiler
- Reduce how often you use your wood burner or fireplace
2. Choose the cleanest sustainable fuel:
- Buy fuel accompanied by the ‘Ready to Burn’ logo
- Do not burn wet or treated/painted/glued wood
- Follow manufacturer instructions for fuel for your stove
- Use a local sustainable wood provider
3. Ensure your stove is burning efficiently:
- Use your open fire or stove in line with any guidance for use
- Make sure it is installed by a registered/certified installer
- Use a stove thermometer to understand how your wood stove is performing
- Service your stove and sweep your chimney at least once a year
- Make sure that the ventilation system is clean
Our thanks to ‘Mums for Lungs‘ for their assistance in providing some of the information and data contained in this post.