Wood burning stoves should be phased out in UK cities, warns leading air pollution expert

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A prominent air quality expert has urged the UK to phase out wood burning stoves in urban areas due to their significant health risks from pollution. The increasing use of these stoves is believed to pose threats to public health, especially in densely populated cities where emissions can create serious health hazards.

One of the UK’s leading air quality doctors is calling for wood burning stoves to be phased out in cities, saying that they risk exposing millions of people to pollutants, often without their knowledge. Stephen Holgate, the Royal College of Physicians’ special adviser on air quality, says that the growing popularity of stoves poses a serious and under-recognised risk.Around one in 10 households in the UK now have a wood burning stove.1 These stoves are marketed as cosy and eco-friendly, but Holgate, a professor of immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton, says that there “isn’t an organ in the body which isn’t affected” by the toxic small particles they emit.Wood burning doesn’t just affect the people who use stoves, says Holgate: in urban areas, especially on still days in winter, emissions from chimneys can become trapped at street level rather than escaping into the atmosphere. “People will have noticed this...