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Learn about heating your home safely at Clean Air Night pop-up

15 January 2025

For the second year, we are supporting Clean Air Night on 22 January with a local pop-up event to discuss wood burning and help everyone make informed heating choices.

Meet our air quality officers and learn about the impact of wood burning on health and air quality.

Event details:

  • Date: Wednesday 22 January 2025
  • Time: 11am to 2pm
  • Location: End of George Street, Richmond

Burning wood is the most polluting way to heat your home. Recent research reveals that even homes using newer 'EcoDesign' wood burners are still releasing three times as much pollution into the air as those without wood burners. Wood burning not only harms your health, but also your wallet and the planet.

Pressures on household finances or desires to be more eco-friendly may tempt people to burn wood, but research actually shows that wood burning produces more carbon emissions than oil or gas and is almost always more expensive than other forms of heating. Wood burning smoke is a significant source of air pollutantPM2.5. These are tiny particles that once inhaled can increase the risk of serious health conditions like stroke, asthma, lung cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Richmond upon Thames is, and has been for many years, a smoke control area. Legislation enforcing smoke control area rules has recently tightened, and you can be fined if you break these rules. This means that once a fire is established, even smaller amounts of smoke from Defra-approved appliances or burning authorised fuel may be against the law. This is because even these appliances can emit smoke, and if there are a number of these being used at the same time, they will contribute to local air pollution.

To reduce PM2.5 pollution locally, it’s important that residents either do not burn or use an exempt stove or open fireplace for special occasions only, not regularly. Even on special occasions, they must ensure they always burn an authorised, dry fuel with the Ready to Burn logo. The label on authorised fuels will note that the product is suitable to burn in a smoke control area. It’s important to use dry storage, as damp fuel, likely when any fuel is stored outside, may cause smoke.

Find out more about Clean Air Night and join the conversation on #CleanAirNight.

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Up to: January 2025

Updated: 15 January 2025

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