Wood burning ban

Communities Against Woodsmoke welcomes the recent legislation regarding the banning of polluting heating systems such as woodburning stoves in new-build homes.

It makes sense from an environmental and health perspective to move away from the archaic burning of our rapidly declining woods and forests. The capacity of mature trees to store carbon cannot be underestimated and to cut these trees down and release decades of stored carbon into the atmosphere in one short burst is completely contradictory to the Scottish Government’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With the majority of newbuild homes being built by large property developers resulting in very densely populated housing schemes in order to maximise profit and space, mean that new-build houses are built in very close proximity to each other. For one householder to install a wood-burning stove in this kind of situation means that the householder and many of their neighbours are going to experience a severe reduction in the quality of air they breathe on a daily basis which will result in poor health. These health impacts were laid out in the recent report from Asthma and Lung UK Scotland.

Whilst this new legislation for New-build houses is good news for those of us who want to breathe clean air in the future, we do need legislation to address wood-burning in existing properties currently. Wood-burning continues to be a significant source of pollution in cities, towns and villages with regulations and monitoring being virtually non-existent. The rise in popularity of wood-burning and the increase in its use mean that similar measures must be taken at this time if we are to seriously address net zero and the effects of air pollution on public health.

We learnt our lesson many years ago from the burning of coal and the severe impact it had on health, the effects of which are still around today in many people. Wood-burning has been linked to a wide range of diseases, which is why we need legislation on this issue now.

Mandy Cairns Communities Against

Woodsmoke