Health effects of air pollution

How does burning wood affect our health?

Burning wood produces air pollution. New research shows that reducing wood burning in homes could deliver massive health and economic benefits across the UK.

Patrick Lee

Communications Manager

Air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health in the UK, contributing to up to 43,000 premature deaths every year. Exposure to pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is linked to serious and potentially fatal diseases affecting the heart, lungs, and brain.

While air pollution harms us all, it does not affect everyone equally. People on lower incomes, people from racialised communities, children, older adults, and those with pre-existing health conditions are all disproportionately affected.

New modelling on wood burning

We’re proud to support Global Action Plan’s campaign Clean Air Night, to raise awareness of the health effects of burning wood.

This year, as part of the campaign, Global Action Plan and Hertfordshire County Council have commissioned new research from Ricardo. The new modelling shows that reducing wood burning in homes could deliver massive health and economic benefits across the UK.

Domestic burning of solid fuels, particularly wood, is a major source of PM2.5, which penetrates deep into the lungs where it passes into the bloodstream, contributing to serious diseases including heart and lung conditions.

Ricardo’s study modelled two national policy scenarios against 2023 baseline emissions:

Scenario 1 assumed that Smoke Control Areas were applied and properly enforced in all urban areas across the UK.

Scenario 2 modelled the effects if all “secondary burning” (defined as when burning wood is not used as a primary heat source, for example burning for aesthetic reasons), were stopped.

Read the full report: Health Impacts from Domestic Burning in the UK.

Local impacts in Hertfordshire

Applying the same model at county level found that:

Eliminating secondary burning could prevent around 28 deaths per year in Hertfordshire alone.

The associated NHS saving for the county is estimated at £ 994,000 per year, with total health-related economic benefits of £35 million annually.

What the results show

The analysis indicates that while enforcing Smoke Control Areas can achieve measurable air-quality and health gains, ending non-essential wood burning has a much larger potential impact, cutting domestic PM2.5 emissions by nearly three-quarters and saving the NHS tens of millions of pounds every year.

But how can we phase out domestic burning?

Global Action Plan’s 2024 policy pathway to phase out domestic burning by 2030 offers a structured set of measures that central and local government could deploy.

The pathway recommends acting across multiple fronts:

Public engagement and awareness: national and local campaigns to inform the public about the harms of wood burning; health-warning labels on stoves and fuels; and burn alerts and fines on high pollution days.
Legal and regulatory reform: phasing out Defra’s “approved” stove and fuel lists; removing exemptions allowed by the Deregulation Act (2015); and tightening national air quality targets and aligning with WHO guidelines.
Strengthening local authority powers: giving councils statutory authority and funding to enforce Smoke Control Areas, monitor emissions, restrict new stove installations (especially in urban and connected homes), and expand SCAs across the country.
Reforming planning and building rules: banning installation of new wood burners in new builds, removing permitted development rights for stoves, and introducing indoor air quality standards akin to EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates).
Incentives and financial support: scrappage schemes for existing stoves, vouchers and grants for cleaner heat alternatives (e.g. heat pumps), and prioritising support for low-income households and off-gas-grid homes.
Carbon accounting and fuel supply reforms: reclassifying wood burning so it’s no longer treated as carbon neutral, restricting imports of wood for burning, and tightening supply chain oversight of solid fuels.

According to the pathway, many of these measures can begin immediately; others would take phased implementation across the remainder of the decade. The aim would be to halt new stove installations rapidly, reverse permissive regulations, and drive a managed transition for existing burners, especially in homes that already have access to cleaner heating.

The latest evidence shows that doing so would save lives, spare immeasurable suffering from preventable diseases, and save the NHS tens of millions of pounds every year.

Learn more about Global Action Plan’s campaign and how you can get involved in Clean Air Night.