An increased interest in wood burners threatens public health progress. We outline the full costs to the public of ignoring PM2.5 pollution indoors.
The aesthetic appeal of a wood burner against the backdrop of a cold, grey, wet UK winter is undeniable. Entering the search term “wood burners” today in popular image sharing sites like Pinterest (commonly used for visualising aspirational home décor) brings up endless, cosy, hygge-inspired imagery and interior design shots. By 2024, over 10% of homes in England had a stove, up from 9.4% in 2022. This is despite 92% of people who burn wood indoors having another way to heat their home. A wood burner has now become a desirable home feature, and the public continues to display increased consumer interest in owning one. And as a result, wood burning air pollution in UK has doubled in a decade.
This poses serious concern to public health, as wood burning releases PM2.5 into the air we breathe. PM2.5 is not a single pollutant, it is a complex mix of fine solid particles, including: sulphates; nitrates; elemental carbon; metals; mineral dust; salts, or allergens.
These PM2.5 particles are so small that they penetrate our lungs very easily, bypassing natural respiratory defences in the nose and throat. This makes the particles more likely to slip into the bloodstream and reach the heart and brain.
“The increase in PM2.5 from domestic wood burning is a worrying trend that cannot continue if we are serious about protecting both the environment and public health,” noted Ross Matthewman, the head of policy and campaigns at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, in 2023.
Traditional wood-burning stoves today are a significant source of PM2.5, contributing to roughly 27% of UK particle pollution, even with legislation mandating modern “Ecodesign” models from 2022. Eco-friendly or Ecodesign wood burner models are models designed to produce lower emissions. But even homes with these wood burners are more polluted than those without, according to research from the University of Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research. In fact, “Ecodesign” wood burning stoves still produce 450 times more harmful air pollution than gas central heating, according to data published in a report from Professor Chris Whitty, the former chief medical officer for England.
The same report found that air pollution kills up to 36,000 people a year in England.
Population research in the UK shows that people exposed to higher PM2.5 levels:
- Have a smaller left ventricle, resembling an “older heart”
- Show substantially higher risks of heart failure (+27%) and stroke (+7%) in the most polluted areas
- Experience rising risk even with tiny pollution increases (≈7% higher heart-failure risk per 1 µg/m³ PM2.5)
The more PM2.5 pollution you are exposed to, the more likely you are to die from heart disease or lung cancer.
Source: Clean Air Night – Final Report Health Impacts from Domestic Burning in the UK
Do wood burners save money?
Today, for some, wood burners represent energy resilience and independence from the grid. Rising energy costs in 2022 drove more people towards considering a wood burner in their home; data confirms that sales of wood-burning stoves increased by approximately 40% between 2021 and 2022 in the UK, peaking at a time of energy crisis. A search in Google Trends for the term “Wood burner” produces results that reflect this increased consumer interest, demonstrating a 5-year peak in September 2022.
However, charities have now debunked the idea that wood burners save money – it is in fact at least 15% more costly to heat a home with a wood burner per year than using a gas boiler, when full fuel and operational costs are accounted for. When used for a portion of household heat (e.g., 20%), the cost rises (about 24% more), and if it’s providing the majority of heat (80%), the cost can be nearly 50% higher than gas. The only scenario where wood appears cheaper is if the wood fuel itself is completely free, but that often isn’t realistic.
The wider cost of woodburning
Stopping non-essential wood burning could save NHS over £54m annually. Research from the organisers of Clean Air Night reveals the stark health burden of wood burning; stopping non-essential wood burning in UK homes could not only prevent deaths but also help save the NHS millions of pounds.
Savings would come from reducing:
- Hospital admissions
- Inpatient stays
- Outpatient treatment
- Prescriptions
These would be related to conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and cardiovascular events caused or worsened by domestic burning.
PM2.5 represents a major macroeconomic burden, comparable to other leading public-health risks. For example, for people living with asthma, poor air quality directly affects their risk of hospital admission and impacts everyday activities, and an increasing body of evidence indicates that particulate pollution, especially PM2.5, can contribute to other conditions including dementia, heart disease and cancers.
A report from the Royal College of Physician’s estimated that in 2019 alone, costs for healthcare, productivity losses and reduced quality of life due to air pollution cost the UK upwards of £27 billion, and this may actually be as much as £50 billion when wider impacts, such as dementia, are accounted for.
Have emissions from wood burners decreased?
Newer, better designed models result in less particulate emissions. But what happens with overall uptake increasing?
As wood-burning popularity rises, researchers warn of a “dematerialisation fallacy”: cleaner individual installations can be outweighed by higher total overall usage. More stoves can still mean greater overall pollution long-term.
A short-term emissions dip from wood burners, due to the uptake of more “eco-friendly” models, may not justify increased wider confidence in wood-burning stoves when they remain a major pollution source. Usage is growing so net public health impact can still be negative.
Shouldn’t we focus on traffic instead?
In 2024, BBC News reported that findings from the University of Birmingham showed a quarter of PM2.5 emissions come from domestic fires while traffic is responsible for 22%.
Certain groups remain more vulnerable to PM2.5 pollution. For example, children’s developing lungs are especially vulnerable to negative impacts from PM2.5 exposure. Concerningly, research in Wales found that the home, not their outdoor travel, was the largest contributor to children’s daily exposure. Wood burners may treble children’s exposure to pollution in homes.
Clear air starts at home
Wood burners may look cosy and offer a sense of energy independence, but the evidence is mounting: the rise in domestic wood burning is undermining public health gains. Even “Ecodesign” stoves, while cleaner than older models, still produce far more PM2.5 than gas heating, and increasing stove numbers threaten to outweigh improvements in appliance efficiency.
The economic costs of ignoring this issue are real, as are the premature deaths, cases of heart and lung disease, and billions in healthcare losses. Reducing non-essential wood burning could save lives, ease the strain on the NHS, and protect the most vulnerable, especially children. Trends come and go, but poor air quality will affect us all – from birth to death.
