One housed a family with two children and the other a retired couple.

Research commissioned by the charities Global Action Plan and Impact on Urban Health used a computer simulation of two mid-terrace houses to investigate the costs of different heating choices. This is a health burden of almost £800 a year created by the average person in London who uses a fireplace or stove. It also estimated that about 90 new cases of asthma in children, 60 new cases of stroke and 30 new lung cancer cases a year were linked to this pollution. A recent study estimated that 284 Londoners a year are dying earlydue to outdoor air pollution from solid fuel heating. It indicates wood burning is having a stronger influence at night.” “Soot from wood burning absorbs more ultraviolet light compared with fossil fuel emissions, and when we compare the daytime to nighttime readings we see this signature. He explained how his instruments detected wood burning using light of different wavelengths. There is a lot of organic particles and black carbon, which we’d associate with soot.” During the day there were clear signs of traffic emissions, but in the evening the air contained smoke from home fires.Īllan said: “At night in the winter we see high concentrations of particle pollution. It was clear that the particle pollution in the city had changed around sunset. A laser scans the sky to search for pollution above and another set of lasers create a light curtain to measure rain and fog.ĭr James Allan sat down at a computer screen and looked at data streams from the past 24 hours. The roof is a forest of sample pipes sucking air into the instruments below. Last month I visited one of the UK’s most advanced air pollution measurement sites, located in the south of Manchester, where researchers from the University of Manchester make detailed measurements of the gases and particles in the air. There is further evidence from citizen scientists, including a group of friends who track the smoke that drifts across the gardens and into houses in Chorley, Lancashire. Last winter, researchers from Imperial College London surveyed wood and coal smoke in gardens and streets. Smith’s experience is not an isolated example.

Children, asthmatics and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable.” Exposure like this over long periods of time will aggravate the heart and lungs of anyone in the smoke plume. “Concentrations in front of the houses near the pub were even higher than outside my flat. A short walk upwind confirmed my suspicions: the pub opposite my estate had smoke billowing from its chimney. “As soon as I got outside, the readings on my sensor jumped. Air pollution in the street was even worse than indoors.

Wood burning fire pit