Clean Air, Better Health

Resources

Useful Information
Health costs of allowing New Wood Heaters - thousands of dollars per heater per year

Wood heating Industry's incorrect & misleading information

NSW Health: Wood burning heaters and your health. Q: What can you do to reduce the chance of wood smoke affecting your health? A: Instead of using a wood-burning heater in your home, consider using heating alternatives that cause less pollution such as reverse cycle air-conditioning, flued gas or electric heaters.

Vic Parliamentary Inquiry: Health Impacts Air Pollution & Community Submissions

NSW Clean Air Strategy & Community Submissions
Guardian: Phase out urban wood burners in UK to protect children’s health, say doctors. A new position statement from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) calls for tougher government action to curb air pollution.

One key recommendation is to “phase out domestic wood-burning in urban areas, assist rural residents to transition away from wood as a primary heating source and support those in fuel poverty with fuel cost assistance”.

Australian Community Groups

Communities for Clean Air Network: https://www.c4cleanair.net.au/

'Clean Air Canberra' - https://cleanaircanberra.com

AirQuality Aus - facebook page - lots of news

My Air Quality Australia - facebook group - even more news & discussion

NSW EPA Resources
If you can smell it, you're already breathing it
Other sources of pollution are not more important

Wood burning is not climate neutral

Collecting and burning dead wood isn't environmentally friendly

Asthma Australia

The NSW Government’s Clean Air Strategy does not adequately address one of the biggest sources of air pollution and a major cause of asthma, domestic woodfire heaters.
Three-quarters of the general population surveyed (77%) agree that woodfire heaters should not be allowed in urban or built-up areas; over half agree they should be phased out (55%) or banned completely (54%).

Australian Health Research

Medical Journal of Australia - health impacts & costs of wood heater pollution

Health Costs of Wood Heater & Landscape Fire Pollution in Tasmania

Reduced risk of death from reduced wood heater pollution in Launceston

Centre for Air pollution, energy & health Research (CAR, an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence): excellent position paper on wood heater pollution, written by 11 experts, explaining that "Current Australian wood heater standards are insufficient to protect health".

Health Professionals

Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution

Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment

The American Lung Association "Avoid burning wood, corn, switchgrass or other products to heat the home or water ... Look for alternatives to heat your home. More and more homes are shifting to alternatives such as solar panels and electric or geothermal heat pumps.”

Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment

The Canadian Lung Association recommends that you don't burn wood in residential setting