Fires are the most polluting way to heat British homes this winter

Winter is coming and lorries are delivering logs in streets near my house. Wood and smokeless fuels are being sold in local DIY shops and garages, and once again my neighbourhood is filled with the smell of smoke.

A fire may look cosy but it comes with a wider cost. Last year’s chief medical officer’s report recognised that solid fuels are by far the most polluting way to heat a home.

A study, by Ricardo Energy and Environment, has estimated that 284 Londoners are now dying early each year due to outdoor air pollution from solid fuel heating. They also estimated about 90 new cases of asthma in children, 60 new cases of stroke and 30 new lung cancer cases each year.

This creates annual health and economy cost of £187m, or £24 per Londoner, regardless of whether they burn solid fuels or not. Taking a polluter-should-pay perspective, this is an average burden of almost £800 a year created by each person in London who uses a fireplace or stove.

The London study is broadly in line with a European-wide estimate of €760 (£650) yearly societal-health cost for each household that uses a wood stove.

Prof Fay Johnston, from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Tasmania, who was not involved in the London research said: “Given the high health and economic burden of pollution from this type of heating, interventions to reduce wood heaters in densely populated areas will be highly cost effective. Even small reductions in outdoor wood smoke will reduce the community burden of chronic heart and lung diseases, and increase the average life expectancy of people living in London.”

According to UK government figures, home use of solid fuels is the second largest source of airborne particle pollution in the UK. Although some burning takes place outside, such as patio heating in summer, solid fuel pollution is mainly measured during winter evenings when people are heating their homes.

This problem is not confined to London nor to big cities.

In Chorley, Lancashire Mark Tebbutt has worked with friends and neighbours to install measurement equipment across the town. Their data shows frequent breaches of World Health Organization guidelines and reveals the burning habits of the residents.

Tebbutt explained: “Chorley has a high number of older terrace houses with fireplaces and the smell of burning often wafts through my home. Solid fuel burning mainly takes place during the weekend evenings, Fridays to Sundays, from October to April but has increased in the cost-of-living crisis.”

The new study was part of the London Wood Burning Project, which is funded by Defra and has 18 councils taking part.

The project scientists at Imperial College London installed measurement equipment in the homes and gardens of people who burn solid fuel. Researchers also walked about 125 miles (200km) of streets with backpacks loaded with sensors.

The main indoor exposure happened when fires were first lit or fuel was added, although this was often less than the indoor particle pollution when people were smoking cigarettes or cooking. The researchers also found particle pollution immediately outside homes that burned solid fuel, including outside a home with the most modern type of stove.

Persistent wood burning hotspots were found in residential streets. The existence of hotspots is reflected in national surveys of complaints from people who find that their homes are being polluted by neighbours’ fires.

John Casey from Imperial College London, who led the fieldwork investigation, said: “In the end our noses proved a pretty good detector for wood and coal burning. We couldn’t see individual chimneys or smoke in the dark but as we walked the streets solid fuel burning smells would suddenly become obvious. We noted these locations for each walk. When we later analysed measurement data from the backpacks we found that our smell map matched our data quite well. If you’re smelling solid fuel burning then you’re likely being exposed to extra particle pollution.”

Photograph: Stavros Markopoulos/Getty Images