While traffic and industry have been the focus of air pollution controls for the past two decades, the old issue of pollution from home heating has crept up again.
Wood- and coal-burning homes in the UK now produce more particle air pollution than the vehicles on our roads. Industry figures show that about 200,000 new stoves were sold in 2022.
The campaign group Mums for Lungs have called for a ban on stove sales and a public health campaign, but government action is based on helping people to burn better rather than not burning at all. Regulations remain rooted in the smoke control areas that were created in the 1950s with a focus on cleaner fuels, such as dry wood, and standards for new stoves.
Dr James Heydon from the University of Nottingham has carried out a study on burning to heat homes. He said: “The UK’s smoke control regulations are outdated, difficult to enforce, and inadvertently promote burning that produces pollution. We therefore decided to test whether a successful approach from the US could help fill the regulatory gap.”
Many parts of the US have enforceable bans on home heating with stoves and fireplaces when air pollution builds up across the area. These are credited with reducing wood burning pollution in the Seattle (Puget Sound) area by 10-20%. A scheme in California that banned home wood burning on the most polluted 100 days during winter reduced hospital admissions for heart disease in people aged 65 and over.
Heydon and his team could not enforce action but instead sought voluntary changes. Fifty Sheffield homes agreed to check a study website before lighting their fires. This gave green, amber and red alerts, depending on local air pollution, along with reminders that even lighting a fire on a clean air day would increase neighbourhood air pollution.
As a result, 74% of householders modified their behaviour. Some users mentioned wanting to be a good citizen and concerns about children’s health as reasons for not lighting a fire during a red alert. Others mentioned deciding not to light a fire on milder evenings with amber alerts.
Heydon said: “Burning wood to heat homes is widely seen as socially acceptable. Penalising people for doing what they have long been encouraged to do would likely face criticism and rejection.
“Instead, designing regulations that foster voluntary compliance encourages greater participation and builds trust. This allows for the creation of rules that people view as legitimate and are more willing to engage with, rather than through coercion.”