Clean Air Night

The UK organization Global Action Plan has been running a new “sister campaign” to their annual Clean Air Day, which occurs each June. This new campaign is called Clean Air Night, and is specifically devoted to raising awareness about harm caused by wood burning.

Funded by Hertfordshire County Council and supported by over 40 other organizations and government entities, Clean Air Night occurred on January 24 after a month-long social media campaign devoted to debunking myths about wood burning.

Information on the campaign from their website states:

Up to now, it’s been easy to associate the glow of a fire or wood burner with comfort. Pressures on household finances may have tempted more people towards burning wood in the belief that it’s cheaper or more environmentally friendly.

However, we want to help protect people and planet by shining a light on these myths and letting you know that in fact, wood burning hurts your wallet, your health and the planet.

They point out that residential wood burning is now the largest source of fine particle pollution in the UK, and that it is not environmentally friendly. The campaign organizers have also presented research demonstrating that “wood burning is almost always more expensive than other forms of heating” in the UK.

The campaign also makes it clear that modern Defra-approved Ecodesign wood stoves are in fact highly polluting, tripling indoor levels of fine particle pollution and contributing significantly to outdoor pollution.

The ‘ecodesign’ label on stoves is unfortunately misleading consumers to believe that burning wood in these stoves doesn’t produce pollution or harm the environment—whereas the truth is that wood burning harms your health and the planet.

We know that this information is not widely known or spoken about. The aim of Clean Air Night is to empower the public with the facts about wood burning so they can make informed choices for themselves, their health, and their community.