Why wood burning threatens the fight for clean air

January 8, 2026

Mug with hot tea standing on a chair with woolen blanket in a cozy living room with fireplace. Cozy winter day. — Image: © Polina Lebed | iStock

Jonathan Blades from Asthma + Lung UK discusses the rising concern and health impacts related to air pollution caused by domestic wood burning in the UK

On a bitter December morning in 1952, a lethal fog descended on London. The Great Smog of London – a consequence of the city’s dependence on coal-fired power – claimed the lives of 12,000 people, and left thousands more seriously ill. ⁽¹⁾

It was the catalyst for the Clean Air Act of 1956, a landmark law that curbed coal smoke, ushering in a new era of cleaner air. Nearly 75 years on, we now face a different, but equally pressing, challenge.

Today’s air pollution no longer cloaks cities in fog, but it remains a silent killer – contributing to up to 43,000 deaths in the UK every year, according to the Royal College of Physicians.⁽¹⁾

In recent years, real and measurable progress has been made to tackle one of the biggest sources of modern urban pollution: road traffic. ⁽²⁾ But attention is now turning to a quieter, increasingly worrying, source of pollution: domestic burning.

The hidden cost of a ‘cosy’ fire

Wood-burning stoves have surged in popularity across the UK over the past decade. An estimated 1.9 million homes in the UK now have one, ⁽³⁾ with the proportion of households using wood burners rising from 9.4% in 2022 to 10.3% in 2024. ⁽⁴⁾ But for stove owners – and their neighbours – the supposedly comforting glow of a wood fire can come at a serious cost.

Domestic wood burning has, over the past decade, become one of the UK’s largest sources of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – ranking closely behind road traffic in its contribution to our toxic air crisis.⁽⁵⁾

These microscopic PM2.5 particles, a thirtieth the width of a human hair, are among the most harmful pollutants to health, penetrating deep into the lungs and entering the bloodstream, and thereby affecting every organ in the body – even unborn babies during pregnancy. PM2.5 is also linked to a wide range of serious health conditions such as asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature deaths, ⁽⁶⁾ with wood and coal burning contributing to around 2,500 deaths. annually in the UK. ⁽⁷⁾

The science is clear. Wood burners triple the levels of harmful pollution particles inside homes ⁽⁸⁾ – even the latest DEFRA-approved ‘eco-design’ stoves emit 450 times more PM2.5 pollution than a modern gas boiler. ⁽⁹⁾

Recent research by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) found that using an indoor wood-burning stove significantly reduces lung capacity to levels comparable to cigarette smoke, even among healthy users. ⁽¹⁰⁾ And wood smoke contains most of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke, including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. ⁽¹¹⁾

But what is less well documented is how this danger spreads beyond the living room. Fine particulate matter can drift for miles, affecting neighbours and entire communities. Asthma + Lung UK regularly hears from people whose chronic respiratory conditions are exacerbated by nearby burning.

In Asthma+ Lung UK’s Life with a Lung Condition survey, 79% of participants indicated that air pollution exacerbates their lung condition. ⁽¹²⁾ Nearly half of those surveyed expressed support for stronger policy measures to combat air pollution, with domestic heating being one of the key concerns.

However, attempts to protect communities from harmful smoke have so far failed. Not one prosecution for illegal wood burning – emitting smoke from a chimney in a smoke control area – has been made in the past year. This is despite 15,195 complaints across England, according to new data. ⁽¹³⁾

So serious is the threat to public health – especially to children – that organisations, including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, have called for the phasing out of wood burning in domestic areas. With government support available to rural residents and those in fuel poverty to transition to cleaner heat sources. ⁽¹⁴⁾ Global Action Plan has also launched a policy pathway to phase out domestic burning by 2030, highlighting how only 8% of wood-burning stove owners burn out of necessity.⁽¹⁵⁾

A worrying misconception

Worryingly, despite the known health risks, many people still view log burners as a sustainable alternative to gas heating – largely due to how many wood burners are marketed as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘carbon neutral’. A 2024 national poll by Global Action Plan found that over half of UK households believe installing a wood-burning stove is an environmentally responsible choice. ⁽¹⁶⁾

In reality, wood burning is anything but green. A report from the European Environment Bureau showed that even DEFRA-approved ‘eco-stoves’ produce 750 times more PM2.5 per unit of energy produced than a modern HGV. ⁽¹⁷⁾

Claiming burning wood is ‘carbon neutral’ also overlooks the fact that replanted trees, which take between 40 and 100 years to capture the same carbon as native forests, are often cut down within 20 years for wood pellets, before they can absorb enough carbon to offset their emissions. ⁽¹⁸⁾

Time for decisive action

To support a pathway towards phasing out domestic wood burning, the government must act with the same urgency that followed the Great Smog of 1952. Smoke Control Areas – one of the measures introduced in the 1956 Act – made it illegal to emit smoke from chimneys unless using authorised fuel.

But rising PM2.5 levels suggest these measures are no longer effective, with most modern stoves now exempt from these rules despite growing evidence of their harms. Furthermore, while local authorities can investigate smoke complaints and enforce controls, they aren’t legally required to monitor PM2.5 levels, report to Defra, or implement pollution-reduction plans.

To truly safeguard public health, Asthma + Lung UK is calling for:

National air quality targets aligned with the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines;
A nationwide public awareness campaign about the health and environmental harms of domestic wood burning; and
Ambitious new clean air laws that protect those most at risk from air pollution from all sources.

The Clean Air Act transformed Britain once before. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, we need that same level of ambition to ensure every child in the country can grow up free from the suffocating grip of air pollution.