Open fires will see pollution in the home rise this Christmas, expert warns

Think twice before lighting indoor fires this year
Sian Bayley18 January 2019

The festive season sees us lighting candles and cosying up by the fire – but this can cause problems for indoor air quality when harmful particulates are released, according to one expert.

Ian Colbeck, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Essex, says there are steps we can all take to reduce air pollution over Christmas with indoor pollution most often the greater concern.

“There’s normally not much traffic on the roads on Christmas Day, so we expect the air quality to be better than normal. Although the Friday or Saturday before are some of the busiest days on the roads as people rush home or get last minute food and presents from the shops,”Colbeck said.

Instead he believes the real problem is inside the home, largely due to wood burning stoves or open fires.

These stoves are responsible for up to 31 per cent of ultra-fine PM2.5 particulates in the capital according to King’s College London, and can seriously affect those suffering from respiratory problems.

According to City Hall, 7.9 million Londoners, nearly 95 percent of the capital’s population, live in areas of London that exceed the WHO guideline limit on PM2.5 by 50 per cent or more.

However, Colbeck suggests that “where wood burning stoves or open fires are regularly used, simple actions, like burning cleaner fuels and opening windows to ventilate the home can make a big difference.”

Colbeck encourages people to use properly dried wood if having a fire. A 1kg freshly cut log can contain around a pint of water. And burning off all that water takes a lot of energy from the fire and creates a lot of smoke which is bad for your lungs.

People can also seek guidance from the Stove Industry Alliance and Woodsure, the UK’s woodfuel accreditation scheme. It recently launched the voluntary “ecodesign ready” and “Ready to Burn” labels for stoves and fuels.

The same goes to particulates released from candles and nitrogen dioxide emitted by gas cookers.

“Any combustion source is particularly bad indoors,” said Colbeck.

“It builds up over time and can get to significantly higher levels than by the roadside.”

However, these can be improved by making sure the extractor fan is on every time you cook (not just when the windows are misted up) and using alternatives such as battery operated candles or fire screensavers on the TV.

Even party poppers have been shown to emit “exceedingly high levels of particulate matter” after being fired.

However, Colbeck stresses that this is only for a short time and you shouldn’t necessarily stop using them altogether.

“Instead it’s something those with respiratory problems might want to forgo,” he said.

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