Australian wood heater standards "not good enough"
PM2.5 is the most hazardous air pollutant, responsible for the premature deaths of over 2,600 Australians every year. There is no safe level of PM2.5 pollution.
In Australia, wood heaters are used by only a small proportion of households, but they are the largest source of PM2.5 that ends up in our lungs, as shown by the screenshots below from the latest Vic EPA air pollution inventory and the draft NSW Clean Air Strategy.
A major cause of the excessive pollution from wood heaters is that real-life emissions from new wood heaters average 8 times worse than the manufacturers' claims with emissions that are almost as bad as the heaters installed 20 years ago. A report: ‘Reducing the health impacts of wood-heaters in Australia’, August 2021 by 11 experts from the Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR, an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence) explains that ‘current Australian wood heater standards are insufficient to protect health’. Sadly, all attempts to set a stricter health-based standard in Australia have failed; the only changes to be implemented are those approved by the wood heating industry. Moreover, despite the fact that New Zealand's Canterbury 1 standard has much lower real-life emissions, the Australian wood heating industry continues to sell new heaters using untrue claim that "Australia has the toughest standards in the world" 7News, 9 Aug 2021.
Wood smoke contains the same and very similar toxic chemicals to cigarette smoke, including PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), many of which are listed as known human carcinogens. Scientists measure the combined cancer-causing potential in terms of BaP equivalents. Many wood heater users are unaware that an evening's heat produced by burning 10 kg of Australian hardwood in an enclosed wood heater results in the emission of the BaP-equivalent to the PAH in the smoke from over 400,000 cigarettes.
Because of the problems of wood heater pollution in the Australian Capital Territory, a report in 2023 by Dr Sophie Lewis, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment , recommends not allowing any new heaters to be installed and phasing out existing heaters.
This totally unsatisfactory situation happened because ‘Current Australian wood heater standards are insufficient to protect health’, explain 11 health experts from the Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research.
Christchurch, NZ, introduced the current standard in Australia more than 2 decades ago (in 2000), but real-life emissions of the heaters proved to be so unsatisfactory that new regulations had to be introduced to remove them within 20 years of installation.
The problem is that the AS/NZS 4013 test is carried out in highly controlled laboratory conditions and bears little or no relationship to real-life emissions. Researchers showed that average real-life emissions of wood heaters are 8 times worse the AS/NZS 4013 test,
Initially, in 2002, Christchurch tried to reduce pollution by reducing the emissions limit from 1.5 g/kg (the current limit introduced in Australia in 2019) to 1.0 g/kg. But this didn't work, so all these heaters are also being phased out.
The only heaters that can be installed in Christchurch are those that satisfy a new standard, the 'Canterbury Method 1 (CM1) designed to better reflect real-life emissions.
It is natural for people to believe that if a product satisfies an Australian standard, it must be ‘safe’. If people knew and understood the risks to their health, e.g. that the “Growing up in New Zealand” study found that every additional modern woodstove per hectare increased by 7% the risk children under 3 would need hospital emergency treatment for all conditions except accidental injury, would they choose non-polluting alternatives with lower running costs than buying firewood?
Would Australians choose to install heaters with emissions similar to the ones now considered so polluting that they can no longer be used in Christchurch?
The current untenable situation arose because the wood heating industry was able to exert undue influence on the Australian Standards Committee. In 2007, when a majority of Standards Committee members supported by 15 votes to 4 to halve the emissions limit as an interim measure while a new test to measure real-life emissions was being developed, there was no majority support from the 4 representatives of wood heating industry, so the process was abandoned.
Subsequent updates to the Australian Standard appear to have been initiated by the wood heating industry. There is no evidence that Committee ever considered the much better performance of the New Zealand Canterbury test, or the New Zealand research showing that real-life emissions of new heaters satisfying the current test are little better than those measured in Launceston in 2005.
At the Tasmanian session of the Healthy Environments and Lives Conference on 18 November 2021, there was general agreement that the current Australian Standard is totally inadequate. For example, the presentation by Dr John Todd noted that “our Standards are out of date” Indeed, there was general agreement by all contributors to the panel session that "The current approach of having an Australian standard - a very inadequate standard - just doesn't work"
If you believe that Australians deserve better, let us know by email: ausairqual@gmail.com
No safe level of PM2.5 pollution
Tiny particles known as PM2.5 are considered the most hazardous air pollutant. They are so small they behave like gases and enter our homes when all doors and windows are shut. They also penetrate the deepest recesses of our lungs and can cross into the bloodstream, carrying toxins to every organ of the body. Several of the toxins in wood smoke are known to cause cancers.
Researchers at the Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR, an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence) found that long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution in Australia leads to over 2,600 deaths resulting in 38,962 lost years of life, with estimated cost of $6.2 billion every year.
As well as the increased risk of mortality, PM2.5 pollution is associated with increased risk heart attacks, strokes, lung diseases, cancers, dementia, eye diseases, asthma, premature births, low birthweights, autism, genetic damage in babies, reduced IQ and behavioural problems when children start school and poorer educational achievement in older children.
If people knew and understood the risks to their health, e.g. that even 1 modern wood heater the “Growing up in New Zealand” study found that every additional modern woodstove per hectare increased by 7% the risk children under 3 would need hospital emergency treatment for all conditions except accidental injury, would they choose non-polluting alternatives with lower running costs than buying firewood?
In recognition of the increased risk, Australian fire-fighters suffering from leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma or brain, bladder, breast, colorectal, kidney, testicular, kidney, prostate, ureter or oesophageal cancers automatically qualify for workers’ compensation after several years of service.
Two really good videos on the subject are: WHO: Breathe Life 80 sec video: How air pollution impacts your body. Air pollution is an invisible killer that lurks all around us, preying on the young and old. Learn how it slips unnoticed past our body's defences causing deaths from heart attack, strokes, lung disease and cancer. And the UNICEF 170 sec video: What does Air Pollution PM 2.5 do inside children's body and brain
Save money & the planet by switching to modern, efficient reverse cycle
Energy Expert Dr Tim Forcey explains in this webinar in February 2022 (starting at 15 mins 21 secs) that heat pump hot water systems are eligible for renewable energy certificates because it takes just 1 unit of electricity to generate 4.5 units of hot water. Modern, efficient, reverse cycle air conditioners (also called heat pumps) can do even better. They, too move the sun’s warmth from outside to inside homes, and can deliver 5 or 6 times as much heat to the home as they use in electric power. They are now the cheapest and most environmentally friendly heating option, with substantially lower running costs than buying firewood.
Wood heaters are not environmentally-friendly. They emit methane, black carbon, carbon monoxide and CO2, so the average wood-heated home will cause more global warming over the next 20 years (the critical period if we are to keep global warming well below 2 degrees) than up to 50 similar homes heated by reverse cycle. Similar sentiments were expressed in a New Scientist video on Facebook that 'log-burning stoves are harming our health and speeding up global warming'.