How bad is wood-burning? And why do people do it?

We know now that wood-burning stoves are <a href="https://stoveindustryalliance.com/increase-in-wood-burning-stove-sales-points-to-consumers-taking-action-to-tackle-heating-bills/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">increasing in sales</a> in the UK, with greatest sales in the richest parts of the country. Yet, the government refuse to ban them despite the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1124738/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-air-pollution-dec-2022.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Chief Medical Officer’s report</a> saying the overall declines in air pollution are concurrent with ‘an increase in emissions from domestic wood-burning’, that ‘domestic burning is a major source of our national emissions of fine particulate matter’, and that air pollution causes the death of ‘between 26,000 and 38,000’ people in England per year. Firstly, a definition: PM2.5 is any particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or smaller. This is an important size because it reaches the lower lung. Particulate matter is measured as μg/m³, which is the concentration of an air pollutant, and stands for “<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">micrograms per cubic meter of air</a>”. The UK government will often say things like ‘<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/emissions-of-air-pollutants/emissions-of-air-pollutants-in-the-uk-particulate-matter-pm10-and-pm25" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">annual emissions of PM2.5 have fallen by 85% since 1970</a>’, to demonstrate that particulate air pollution has reduced. But even though total PM2.5 is decreasing, PM2.5 from wood-burning are increasing, effectively replacing the phasing out of coal. <a href="https://medium.com/the-new-climate/why-the-environmental-movement-has-a-blind-spot-for-wood-burning-73a5d0eb2a6b">Learn More</a>