“What is staggering is the increase between 2010 and 2020,” said Simon Birkett, of the campaign group
Clean Air in London. “There’s still a really big problem. It’s a public health catastrophe, so wood-burning stoves need to be banned urgently. The first step should be to stop the sale or installation of them.”
Other recent research has shown that wood-burning stoves in urban areas are responsible for almost
half of people’s exposure to the cancer-causing chemicals found in air pollution particles. Even wood-burning stoves meeting the new “ecodesign” standard still emit
750 times more tiny particles than a modern HGV truck, another study found, while wood burners also
triple the level of harmful pollution inside homes and should be sold with a health warning, according to scientists.