Trendy wood-burning stoves emit dangerous air pollution, but a new report claims their benefits have been ‘overlooked’.
Experts at Stove Industry Association (SIA), the UK’s trade association for the industry, say stoves and fireplaces are good for physical and mental wellbeing.
They also bring families together and are cheaper and more ‘accessible’ than electric heating, which has risen in cost since the global energy crisis.
While the SIA doesn’t contend the health dangers of pollutants emitted from stoves, its new report promotes the little-known benefits.
Typically cube-shaped in design, wood-burning stoves are getting increasingly popular as they have a sealed glass door – unlike the more traditional open fireplaces.
As a result, wood-burning stoves emit less pollution than open fireplaces, such as PM2.5 – invisible particles that are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter – as well as toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides
Inhaling particulate matter has been linked with heart and lung disease, heart attacks, dementia, diabetes and cancer.
However, scientists warn that pollution still escapes from wood-burning stoves whenever the glass door is opened.
Wood-burning stoves (pictured) are steadily replacing older style open fires. Typically cube-shaped in design, wood-burning stoves have a sealed glass door and are connected to a chimney or flue. They release less pollution into the air than open fireplaces. However, pollution still escapes from wood-burning stoves whenever the glass door is opened
The new report from Stove Industry Association (SIA) provides an in-depth analysis of the ‘multifaceted benefits’ of ‘residential combustion’.
For the document, the authors referred to the results of academic publications, industry reports and recent surveys across the UK and Europe.
Overall, they found multiple overlooked benefits of wood-burning stoves, ranging from health and wellbeing to financial.
A wood-burning stove or open fireplace encourages feelings of relaxation, due to the ‘beautiful ‘ glowing orange light, the report says.
What’s more, the gentle crackling sound from wood being burnt promotes feelings of happiness, calmness, family and homeliness.
Watching a fireplace can even reduce our heart rate and bring down blood pressure, studies have suggested, mitigating the risk of hypertension and reducing stress.
Wood-burning stoves also promote a range of social and familial benefits because they represent a communal meeting place within a home.
A roaring fire, especially in the winter, encourages people to congregate around it to get warm, but also provides a trigger for conversations and social bonding.
Wood-burning stoves also promote a range of social and familial benefits because they represent a communal meeting place within a home (file photo)
Word cloud summary of the most commonly reported words in response to connotations of wood burning, according to 2023 YouGov survey
It also means people are less likely to be looking at their smartphones and more likely to be looking at the fire.
‘Use of a fire within a household setting promotes friendly and creative discussion – i.e. the use of imagination and storytelling, compared with daytime discussion topics,’ the report says.
‘This central focal point also provides an alternative, non-digital or electronic media device, about which a family can gather.’
Congregating around a fire is a behaviour human beings have enjoyed in for millennia, so even today we may be predisposed to gather around flames.
Meanwhile, related tasks such as foraging for food, chopping wood, building a fire also provide households with enjoyable bonding exercises before the fire has even been lit.
The researchers point to the popularity of virtual fireplace videos on Netflix and YouTube, which may be fuelled by people who do not have the luxury of a wood-burning stove in their home.
It may explain why Netflix’s virtual fireplace videos was the streaming giant’s most-watched Christmas content over Christmas, ahead of the new series of Squid Game.
‘Simulated or virtual fireplaces provide some advantages to the individual however the experience is likely significantly different from that of interaction with a real flame,’ the team add.
Results from the ‘Charnwood Wellbeing Survey’ (2021) identify a big proportion (1,135 or 92.6 per cent) of respondents who think stove use has a positive impact on their wellbeing
The researchers point to the popularity of virtual fireplace videos on Netflix and YouTube, which may be fuelled by people who do not have the luxury of a wood-burning stove in their home
Aside from the physical and metal benefits, wood-burning stoves offer economic and financial benefits during a cost-of-living crisis.
Stoves not only offer a low-cost alternative to gas and electric heating, but give the homeowner ‘energy security’ in that they provide reliable heating during power outages and extreme weather events.
Stoves are a defence against ‘fuel poverty’, where a household does not have enough income to pay their heating bills.
If you live in a property that already has a wood-burning stove installed, the only expenses involved are wood and matches, although the former can prove expensive.
However, wood logs are cheaper per kWh than electric heating, according to SIA – 10.73 pence per kWh and 31.2 pence per kWh, respectively.
‘While gas is currently cheaper per kWh than wood logs, many stove users find that they are able to significantly reduce their gas consumption by using their stove to heat their main living space and give radiated heat in other areas of the home,’ a SIA spokesperson said.
Overall, the report authors say the benefits of wood-burning stoves are far less well-known that the negative health and environmental impacts, which are ‘well documented’.
SIA also says household activities considered innocuous – such as frying food and using scented candles and air fresheners – produce far higher levels of PM2.5 than using a modern stove.
Related tasks such as foraging for food, chopping wood, building a fire also provide households with enjoyable bonding exercises before the fire has even been lit
Particulate matter, or PM, comes from a variety of sources, including vehicle exhausts, construction sites, industrial activity or even domestic stoves and ovens. PM2.5 is particulate pollutant 2.5 micrometres or smaller in size
In response, Larissa Lockwood, director of clean air at Global Action Plan, said the report ‘disregards the significant public health harms of domestic wood burning’ both for the households burning wood and their local communities.
‘In the past it may have been easier to find comfort in the glow of a fire, but the uncomfortable truth is that if you can smell or see wood burning, you’re breathing in harmful air pollution,’ Ms Lockwood told MailOnline.
‘Wood burning releases toxic fine particle air pollution (PM2.5) inside and outside the home, which enters your bloodstream when inhaled and causes life-threatening health conditions like heart and lung disease, diabetes, stroke and dementia.
‘Wood burning also harms the environment, releasing more carbon emissions than oil or gas for the same amount of heat, and is almost always more expensive than other forms of heating.’
Jemima Hartshorn, founder and director of Mums for Lungs, said ‘the scientific research is clear and unequivocal’ about wood-burning stoves.
‘Lighting a fire in our homes massively increases air pollution in our homes – even the newest Ecodesign stoves – the “cleanest” ones that you are allowed to burn in a smoke control zone – will triple pollution in our homes,’ she told MailOnline.
‘Exposure to wood-burning pollution increases our likelihood of getting lung cancer, it contributes to heart issues, asthma and really has no place in the modern world, where people have access to central heating.
‘It may be cozy – but it is a cozy pollutant right there in your living room, harmful to you, your children and your neighbours.’
MailOnline also contacted London Wood Burning Project and The Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health for comment.
