Clean Air Night confirmed for 22nd January
Global Action Plan, organisers of Clean Air Day, have announced the return of Clean Air Night, the first of which took place in January of this year.
Taking place on Wednesday 22nd January 2025, this year’s event will focus on the health damage caused by domestic wood burning.
The campaign takes a three-pronged attack on the subject:
- Wood burning harms your wallet
- Wood burning harms your health
- Wood burning harms the planet
Coinciding with the announce is the publication of a new report which serves as a policy pathway for the phasing out of domestic wood burning in England.
The report takes aim at the current implementation of Smoke Control areas (SCAs) which, it claims is fundamentally flawed. Changes proposed include extended them to cover the whole of the UK – with exemptions for home with no alternative source of heating – toughening their scope to cover Ecodesign stoves and giving local authorities greater powers to enforce them.
Other measures suggested by the report are:
- A public information campaign to increase understanding about the health harms of wood/solid fuel burning stoves and open fires.
- Increased regulation of the advertising of both wood burning stoves and fuel.
- Increased powers to enable local authorities to tackle the air pollution produced by domestic burning in a way they deem to be most appropriate for their local area
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air at Global Action Plan said: ‘Domestic burning is the biggest source of small particle air pollution in the UK and can cause significant harm to everyone’s health. Over the next five years, the government’s strategy needs to evolve from encouraging people to ‘burn better’ to phasing out this source of harmful air pollution, starting with those homes – most typically, but not exclusively, in our towns and cities – where a fire is a secondary and therefore unnecessary heating source. The report we are sharing today sets out a policy pathway to curb this growing pollution problem and protect public health and the planet, a journey that must start now.’
Days after the publication of the report, Prof. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England also took aim at domestic wood burning in his Health in Cities report: ‘Until recently domestic space heating has over many decades previously been improving with the switch away from coal and other highly polluting solid fuels to gas which produces very little air pollution and electric heating which produces none.
‘Unfortunately, an enthusiasm for wood burners has reversed this positive trend over the last decade in many cities, particularly in affluent areas. In urban areas where there are already laws to enforce smokeless fuels, for good reason because air pollution is extremely dangerous at high concentrations, these should be adhered to. Elsewhere in lower density areas, occasional use of modern design wood burners using dry wood for aesthetic reasons is usually reasonable but continual discharge of particulate matter (PM) from solid fuels such as wood is not good for health, especially of vulnerable people. Cities are not a good place to have high levels of pollution since large numbers of people live in close proximity and if each household emits a moderate amount of avoidable pollution the collective impact can be significant.’
Read Action for Clean Air: evidence and resources on domestic burning here.
