Inability of local councils to resolve problems or prevent health damage to nearby residents from other people’s wood heaters

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of wood smoke policies is that people buy wood heaters, after being misled by industry bodies who profit from selling wood heaters that they are clean and environmentally friendly.  Families can spend thousands of dollars buying a new heating system, only to find they get unexpected and unwelcome complaints from neighbours.

The misinformation begins begin with the AS/NZS4013 test that has been shown to bear little or no relationship to real-life emissions.  This test cannot be changed without the approval of the peak industry bodies that profit from selling wood heaters. 

If people knew the truth that a brand new wood heater produces more PM2.5 – the most hazardous air pollutant – in the first hour after lighting than a petrol car in an entire year of driving, very few people would want to buy new wood  heaters.

Problems are then compounded by the fact that, when neighbours experience adverse impacts on their health or lifestyle, after a new wood heater has been installed nearby, local councils are expects to solve an impossible problem, and have neither the resources or the expertise to do so.

In most cases the neighbour complains, gets nowhere, and in many cases is forced to move house.

These examples demonstrate that current policies have failed.  Everyone should have a right to Clean Air.  The only way to prevent this tragedy is not to permit new wood heaters until they can be guaranteed to have no adverse impact on the health of neighbours, to phase out existing wood heaters in urban areas, e.g. by 1) requiring all wood heaters to be removed when houses are sold, 2) offering subsidies to all current wood heater owners who would like to replace them with non-polluting heating, and 3) an education program to alert all residents to the health impacts of breathing woodsmoke and the disproportionate amount of pollution emitted by even a single wood heater.

 ‘Consultation Regulation Impact Statement for Reducing Emissions from Wood Heaters’ (CRIS)

A majority (33) of the 59 submissions on the CRIS either advocated banning or phasing out all wood heaters in urban areas (25 submissions) or not allowing new wood heaters to be installed (8 submissions). Nearly half of all submitters reported suffering from unresolved problems caused by neighbouring wood heater pollution, with 39% of all submissions reporting adverse health effects often requiring increasing medicinal solutions, including steroid use for asthma diagnoses in children. Similar neighbourhood examples were also cited in submissions from other stakeholders, such as academic and community groups

Senate Inquiry Submissions (woodsmoke.3sc.net/experien)

Rural Victoria. "We have spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to deal with the issues, trying to seal doors and windows better (yet trapping the toxins inside our home when there is seldom a pollution-free timeslot to open any windows!), adding a whole-of-house ventilation system which has turned out to be ineffective while smoke can still seep through the tiniest cracks and crevices which are present even in a modern home."(sub39)

Melbourne. "I asked if (Council’s) environmental officers could explain the health effects of wood smoke to my neighbours. The chief officer explained that this was not their role and that they were not instructed by the Victorian EPA to do this – instead their function was solely about correct operation of wood heaters. The council was not able to help any further, and unfortunately the chief environmental officer took offence at what he considered my criticism of their response, and became defensive and difficult. I stopped requesting their involvement. I got the impression that they would have marked this down as another ‘case solved’ in their reporting on the issue" (sub 134).

Tasmania. "On a daily basis there is considerable visible smoke emitted from their chimney, which is clearly in breach of state regulations, yet penalties have never been applied because it is too hard to measure compliance and enforcement is historically non-existent" (sub 90).

Armidale. "My concern is that wood smoke pollution is a serious health problem that has not been sufficiently addressed to date. It affects me personally by exacerbating my asthma, even when I am indoors in my home which I seal to the best of my ability in an effort to keep wood smoke out" (sub 153)

Other examples (woodsmoke.3sc.net/experien)

Lisa Neville: Please Help Stop Wood smoke Impacting on My Already Inflamed Airways.

July 2015 blog by a Professional Writer, Author,Journalist, Blogger

"Each winter, my health is impacted on by my neighbours’ wood smoke from their wood heaters. Not only does the woodsmoke make me ill for days at a time but it also makes my life and that of my family’s difficult: we have to seal our windows with masking tape to keep the smoke out; we can’t run the exhausts fans in the bathroom unless someone outside the bathroom can tape up and seal cracks around the door due to the backdraft of woodsmoke that comes in; some nights, I have to sleep with a 3M filter mask over my face to protect my airways; we can’t leave our washing outside, nor can we go outside for long—most days, I can’t go outside at all—because the wood smoke particles permeate into our hair and clothing, effecting my airways when we come in  .... "

Western Australia.  For the past 2.5 months there has been constant smoke emitted for about 6 hours + a day.  It often pours out at 4am as they leave the fire to burn out. Resident, who is new to the area, is told that the neighbour burns wood approx. 8 months of the year. He has tried to oblige by extending his chimney.

"My son and I live with windows and doors shut, washing drying inside on sunny days and an air purifier operating inside. I have had two chest infections this winter to date with my son wheezing. I can't remember the last time I had a chest infection.

"I contacted the local council health inspector (department responsible for WA residential) who came and inspected and reported my neighbour is doing all that is required. He will not visit out of business hours to watch the smoke in the evening nor will my neighbour come over and see and smell what we experience. These "guidelines" may be general but how are the individual design of homes in proximity to each other with individual wind patterns get taken into consideration with these guidelines. Obviously these guidelines don't work in our instance and neither my Council or neighbour are prepared to go any further to ease this situation. My neighbour cites he has done all he can and there is no law to stop him."

Residents of Pittwater, Sydney, forced to move home because of wood heaters installed in 2008

"In the winter of 2008 subsequent to significant rises in the cost of electricity we began to regularly experience strong blasts of wood smoke from various directions around us followed by ongoing infusion of smoke into our home which would last all night and often into the next day.  We took every measure possible to try to prevent the infiltration of smoke into our home including taping doors and windows, putting up draft stoppers in the ceiling, purchasing air purifiers, even taping down lights to try to seal out the pollution.

"Unfortunately it was all in vain.  After numerous calls to our local Pittwater Council who seemed to think that the wood burners were in fact the victims and not us, and myriad calls to the EPA, now OEH, we eventually contacted our local newspaper who printed various articles and letters on our behalf in an attempt to raise the public’s awareness on the health impacts of burning wood.  The effects of being subjected to ongoing wood smoke infiltration into our home meant that we frequently experienced sore itchy eyes, sore throats, at times respiratory distress, and nausea and fatigue.  In addition our home and our belongings often smelled of smoke and we experienced deposits of black soot throughout the home.

"After exhaustive attempts to try to remedy the situation and upon advice from GP’s and specialist medical practitioners I was finally forced to sell my home and move.  It is incomprehensible to us that a wood burner has greater rights to burn wood and pollute than we have to breathe clean air and to live safely and comfortably in our own home."

Other residents  of Pittwater,

 Our next door neighbour installed a new and approved wood burning heater in 2010. His house is single story and the flue for the new heater barely rises above his eaves, sitting below his own ridge line and well below our upstairs bedroom window. The smoke from this flue immediately entered most rooms of our old, renovated house.

My wife’s asthma was triggered by the smoke and last winter she developed bronchitis and needed multiple treatments with antibiotics. We had to act. Listed below is what we have done, so far:

1. Turned off our own externally flued gas heater This was drawing in outside air to sustain combustion. (about 6m3 of air per hour when running at 26Mj). The smoke was entrained in this air. This action significantly reduced the quantity of smoke entering our rooms, particularly on those very cold, still nights when it would hang around near ground level enveloping ours and nearby houses.

2. Applied Moroday Multi-Seal Dust Exclusion Tape around all swing doors and hopper windows. This reduced the amount of wind driven smoke entering through gaps around these openings, but failed to seal the gaps around our casement windows, French doors and double swing front door.

3. Sealed closed with masking tape those doors and windows that wouldn’t seal with the Moroday tape.

4. Installed Reverse Cycle, Split System, Inverter Controlled Air Conditioning in the main bedroom, study and living area. Three separate units of 3, 5, and 7KW of heating easily replaced the gas heater, and, our Panasonics actually seem to deodorise any smoke still entering. (Not sure if they actually remove the PM2.5s) Due to their flexibility these may be cheaper to operate than the gas fire if we are careful to switch them off in vacant rooms.

5. Fitted Expol Underfloor Insulation to prevent outside air and smoke entering our living room area through the cracks between the boards of our polished floors, downstairs. This product was relatively easy to fit and it seems to work. It has the added advantage of reducing the heating requirements.

We only took these steps after exploring all of the negotiating and regulatory avenues we could find.

·         We approached the neighbour. He was not interested in our problems with his pollution.

• We contacted the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (previously DECCW). They referred us to Pittwater Council as the local consent authority and sent us some useful literature but confirmed that they have no power to take action against domestic wood smoke polluters.

• We contacted the Pittwater Council requesting that they take action to require the neighbour to mitigate his wood smoke pollution and raise the height of his chimney. The staff seemed more concerned about the neighbour’s right to have a wood burner than our health. They declined to take any action.

•  We again contacted Council and the Mayor citing continued concerns about the affects of the smoke on my wife’s health .They invited us to take photos and referred us to the NSW Protection of the Environment and Operations Act 1997, Div 3, Clause 135. “Definition of Excessive Smoke” which states “excessive smoke  means the emission of a visible plume of smoke for a period of not less than 10 minutes, including a period of not les than 30 seconds when the plume extends at least 10metres from the point at which the smoke is emitted from the chimney”. Council ignored the fact that it is very difficult to take photos of smoke at night and in any case most modern wood heaters emit very little visible smoke - just lots of the toxic PM2.5 particulates.

• We referred Council’s failure to enforce a section of its own DCP to the Ombudsman. He followed up but relied on “Council’s View” of the case. Amazing!

• We contacted our local MP and the Ministers for Environment and Health. The MP was helpful but no result.

• We even contacted the neighbour again and offered to pay for his chimney to be raised. He declined.

Recent Examples collated by Communities for Clean Air

Reservoir resident

My wife and I have lived in Reservoir for over 45+ years and have experienced the changes with wood smoke firsthand. We have lived at our current home for 26+ years and initially the wood smoke issue was only two residents that would burn during the winter.

Over the past 10 years the number has grown to well over seven nearby properties which are within 300 meters of our home. There are many more within a 2 km radius. Every year for the past 3-4 years I have contacted council to have this changed with no result. ...  Not even a simple luxury to open a window and get fresh air. 

Darebin resident

We have tried on many occasions to get the EPA involved and even asked they provide assistance with emissions monitoring as we know some neighbours were burning materials such as treated fence palings, old timber from homes which contained lead paint, pallets which would have been chemically treated for ISPM export compliance with methyl bromide. The EPA always hand balled the matter back saying it was a local council matter. I was of the understanding that air quality was an EPA responsibility. They were even useless at offering advice as to where / how we could obtain the equipment to monitor the air at our own cost.

Oakleigh resident

I have wood smoke from a brand-new wood heater chimney built on the fence line 10 metres from my back door. Often, in these still, autumn days, the smoke drifts in a direct line to my back door, making my back porch uninhabitable, and often comes into my house causing me to block off the living room and kitchen and retire to the bedrooms. There is no one available from council. Monash Council's statements are the chimney was built to spec. The doctor's certificates are not enough. "We haven't the power to take direct action as government policy says wood heating is a valid source of heating." Even when we can't sit on our back porch and are under siege in our own home, none of the government agencies has the power to take action.

Gippsland doctor

I am a senior rural generalist doctor. Part of my job is to advocate on public health issues affecting rural communities. My family has been impacted by wood smoke mostly from nearby wood heaters operating from April to October. I found that talking to neighbours about wood heaters was completely ineffective. I had to tolerate verbal abuse, respond to an intervention order, and even respond to letters of complaint sent to both of my employers, which had significant effects on my professional life. My local council has not responded effectively. EPA and DELWP have likewise offered no protection.

McKinnon resident

A nearby household has a stockpile of old fencing material stored at the side of the house, which it is my observation they use as firewood; the smoke from their chimney is highly offensive and leaves me feeling nauseated and unwell. I recently decided to make a complaint about this to Council; the Civic Compliance officer assigned to the case, made a phone call to the property to advise of the complaint; the household denied burning fencing material, and the officer said that was effectively the end of matter - all Council can do is educate on the use of clean wood. No enforcement or inspection, leaving our family with no option to resolve this health issue.

Northcote resident

I have two neighbours with wood heaters who use them as their sole source of heating. I have two kids with asthma. This has been an ongoing problem for 15 years.

At the start the Council visited our neighbour a couple of times. At first, they told me if the chimney smoked for more than 15 minutes to call them and they would come out. Over time the Council increased this smoking ‘standard’ from 15 minutes, to 30 mins, to 40 mins to 1 hour.

The Council visits not only failed to achieve any reduction in the levels of smoke, but the visits aggravated my neighbour and he became very unpleasant towards us. My neighbour did not see the problem with turning down the air to the fire overnight. I could not call the Council out at eleven o’clock at night when we would smell smoke in the house – and look out and see large plumes of smoke over our house. Each time the Council visited it further embedded my neighbour’s resentment and did nothing to address the levels of smoke.

Reservoir resident

I have managed to get the Council Officer to send a letter to the residents in our area to ask they be a little more respectful of neighbours and be aware that some people have medical conditions, are trying to do their washing on a weekend when we have been at work late all week, etc. This seems to have had little effect as they continue to burn all hours of the day and evenings and well into the night. They burn on days when the temp is around 18 degrees! It seems we are fighting a losing battle with Council/EPA. Surely there needs to be a fairer system for all. Whilst I would like to see it banned at least there should be some restrictions in respect to hours you can burn, and when the temperature is below a certain level, etc.