Air pollution linked to ‘huge’ rise in child asthma GP visits

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exclusive: consultations for asthma and other respiratory infections go up with increased dirty air, finds study

A “huge” increase in the number of visits to doctors by children with asthma problems occurs after a week of raised air pollution, according to a study. The number of inhaler prescriptions also increases significantly.

Dirty air is already known to increase hospital treatment for severe asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. But the new research is the first using clinical data to show increased illness among the much bigger number of people who seek treatment from their GP.

The researchers said children were the most severely affected by the raised air pollution, but there were increases in GP consultations and inhaler prescriptions for people of all ages. Overall, they said, the study demonstrates that air pollution, particularly from diesel vehicles, affects whole communities.

The researchers called for action to cut air pollution and said pollution warnings could be used to help those at risk to prepare for episodes of increased dirty air. The research was conducted in south London over five years and analysed more than 750,000 respiratory consultations at GPs and inhaler prescriptions.

The average level of particle pollution in Lambeth during the study period was 21 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m3). The researchers found that when this pollution was raised by 9 µg/m3 for a week, the number of child consultations for asthma and respiratory infections went up by 7.5%. For nitrogen dioxide pollution, the average level was 51µg/m3, and a rise of 22µg/m3 was linked with consultations rising by 6%.

“These are huge increases,” said Mark Ashworth, at King’s College London, who led the research. “We’d expected much smaller associations. This is a very large shift of the dial and has never been shown before.”

Children are already among the most frequent visitors to GPs and respiratory problems are one of the most common reasons for consultations, he said, so these percentage rises mean a large number of extra visits.

Furthermore, Ashworth said: “We think these headline figures are a substantial underestimate.” This is because the GP data was only available from Monday to Friday and during surgery hours, so consultations at weekends or in the evening were not included in the data.

“We all have in our minds the case of Ella Kissi-Debrah,” Ashworth said. “If only we’d had this evidence then.” A landmark ruling by a coroner in December found that air pollution was a cause of death of the nine-year-old girlin south London in 2013.

“We now have confirmation that diesel-related air pollution is linked strongly to respiratory illness that is bad enough to see the GP,” Ashworth said. “That’s got to be a call to reduce diesel pollution.”

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Ella’s mother and clean air advocate for the World Health Organization (WHO), said: “I keep on saying daily how so many are affected like Ella. Diesel must be phased out as soon as possible – the health impacts are terrible. We can’t have a generation of children on inhalers. Health professionals must continue to speak up as their voice is critical.

The coroner’s April report on the prevention of future deaths said the UK’s legal limits for particulate pollution should be halved, to be in line with WHO guidelines. He also said better warnings on air pollution levels should be provided to the public and that medical staff should be trained to give patients more information on the dangers of dirty air.

Privacy safeguards mean that large datasets of clinical data from GPs are rare but the new study, published in the journal Environmental Health, used Lambeth DataNet, which provides anonymised information on 1.2 million patients.

Data on respiratory consultations and inhaler prescriptions from 2009–2013 were compared with fine-scale air pollution data to reveal the links. The researchers took account of other factors, including the weather and levels of deprivation.

Air pollution levels have reduced since the study period, but NO2 levels remain illegally high in many urban areas and particle pollution is frequently above WHO guidelines, though there is thought to be no safe limit.

“It is not just a few severely affected people who are going to be hit by particulates and NO2,” said Ashworth. “It’s a large proportion of people who are vulnerable. Therefore, anybody taking asthma inhalers is going to have a degree of vulnerability and needs to be prepared.”

Air pollution linked to ‘huge’ rise in child asthma GP visits | Air pollution | The Guardian

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Air quality linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Study explores how traffic-related air pollution impacts the aging brain in rodent model

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found a link between traffic-related air pollution and an increased risk for age-related dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Their study, based on rodent models, corroborates previous epidemiological evidence showing this association.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of age-related dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. More than 5 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease — a number that is expected to triple by 2050 as the population ages. Health care costs for those patients are predicted to grow from $305 billion in 2020 to $1.1 trillion by 2050.

UC Davis toxicologist Pamela Lein, senior author of the study recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, said their findings underscore the urgent need to identify factors that contribute to the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s to develop effective preventive measures for reducing the individual and societal burden of this disease.

Lein worked with UC Davis atmospheric scientist Anthony Wexler and first author Kelley Patten, while she was a doctoral student in the UC Davis graduate group for pharmacology and toxicology, to develop a novel approach to study the impacts of traffic-related air pollution in real time. Researchers set up a rodent vivarium near a traffic tunnel in Northern California so they could mimic, as closely as possible, what humans might experience from traffic-related air pollution.

“This approach was a creative way to get at the question of what impacts air pollution has on the brain in the absence of confounding factors such as socioeconomic influences, diet, etc.,” Lein said. “It’s important to know if living close to these roadways poses a significant risk to the human brain as it ages.”

Exposure outcomes on the aging brain

The researchers exposed male and female rats for up to 14 months to filtered air or polluted air drawn from the tunnel and delivered it to animals unchanged in real time. The subjects were divided into two groups: wild type rats and those that express Alzheimer’s disease risk genes that are relevant to humans.

Testing was conducted in 3-, 6-, 10- and 15-month-old animals using hyperspectral imaging, behavioral testing and neuropathologic measures to quantify the expression of Alzheimer’s disease characteristics.

“We saw that traffic-related air pollution accelerated Alzheimer’s disease characteristics not only in the animals who express the risk gene (which we anticipated) but also in the wild type rats,” Lein said. “We didn’t anticipate that. The big, exciting discovery is that traffic-related air pollution is a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. This is important because this pollution is everywhere and could explain the increased number of people impacted by Alzheimer’s disease across the world.”

What remains unclear is which component of that pollution is predominately responsible for the effects on the brain. There are gases, particulate matter, road dust, tire wear, vibration and noise involved in traffic-related air pollution.

“The next set of studies is to try and tease apart specific components of traffic-related air pollution that drive these Alzheimer’s disease traits,” Lein said. “Or is it the collective mix that causes the damage?”

Fine particles (PM 2.5) in the polluted air at the study site were below federal regulatory limits, but ultrafine particles, which are not regulated, were detected in the brains of exposed animals.

“The Environmental Protection Agency only regulates down to the PM 2.5 level, but the bulk of this traffic-related air pollution is ultrafine particulate matter,” Lein said. “These studies provide incentive to re-evaluate the current regulatory standards and suggest that current ones are not protective of the aging brain.”

The study shows traffic-related air pollution can deliver a double whammy, decreasing the time of onset of Alzheimer’s disease characteristics and accelerating disease progression. While personal factors can change an individual’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease (exercise, smoking, diet), people are often poor about sticking to a plan to decrease their risk factors.

“There’s a lot of data that shows if you can regulate risk factors through policy at a population level, you have a more significant public health impact than if you try to regulate them at the individual level,” Lein said. “If we could make some progress in identifying which component in traffic-related air pollution is causing these effects, then scientists can approach legislators to develop scientifically based regulations. Even if we can delay onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years, we could potentially save our health care system an enormous amount of money.”

This study is one of four published papers to come out of the research site to date. A prior study, published in Translational Psychiatry focused on the developing brain and found a link between traffic-related air pollution and an increased risk for changes in brain development relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

Air quality linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s | EurekAlert! Science News
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Ozone in air pollution is linked to fibroid development in Black women

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Higher levels of ozone from air pollution are linked to an increased risk of developing fibroids among Black American women according to a large study published today (Friday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in and around the womb. They are diagnosed in 25-30% of pre-menopausal women, but the true incidence is thought to be between 70-80%. Many fibroids do not cause symptoms but when they do, they are one of the main reasons women are admitted to hospital for inpatient care. Symptoms can include heavy or painful periods, stomach and back pain, constipation, frequent need to urinate, and pain or discomfort during sex. In some cases they can affect fertility and pregnancy. Women of African-Caribbean origin are diagnosed with fibroids two to three times more often than white women, and they tend to experience earlier onset of symptoms and more severe disease.

Previous research has shown that Black people are exposed to higher levels of air pollution than white people in the USA but, until now, there has been no investigation into the association between air pollution and fibroids in Black women.

The study published today investigated concentrations of three environmental pollutants in the air in 56 US metropolitan areas between 1997 and 2011: particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). The 21,998 premenopausal Black women who lived in these areas and were included in the research were part of the ongoing Black Women’s Health Study. They answered questionnaires every two years and were followed up until 2019.

During the 14-year follow-up period, 6238 (28.4%) of women reported having fibroids diagnosed by a doctor and confirmed by ultrasound or surgery. Average (median) concentrations of ozone were 36.9 parts per billion (ppb), with a range of 25.4 to 55 ppb.

After adjusting for factors that could affect the results, such as education, smoking, body mass index, diet and whether or not the women had been pregnant, the researchers found that the risk of self-reported fibroids increased with increasing levels of ozone in the atmosphere, but not with PM2.5 or NO2.

Ozone was linked to a 35% increased risk of fibroids among the 20% of women exposed to the highest levels of ozone (42-55 ppb) – a rate of 33.6 cases per 1000 women, compared with the 20% exposed to the lowest levels (25-33 ppb) – a rate of 31.4 cases per 1000 women. The association was stronger among women aged less than 35 years and for women who had been pregnant.

First author of the study, Dr. Amelia Wesselink, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), said: “We were surprised to see an association for ozone but not for PM2.5 and NO2. The mechanisms that we think could explain the association between ozone and fibroids are also relevant for the other pollutants, so this was an unexpected finding. It may reflect that there is a mechanism unique to ozone that we are missing, but it might also mean that there is factor that we’ve not been able to measure that could affect the results. For example, we were unable to account for vitamin D exposure and vitamin D deficiency is a suspected risk factor for fibroids.”

Biological mechanisms that might be involved in the link between ozone and fibroids include an immune inflammatory response; oxidative stress (an imbalance between molecules in the body, leading to cell and DNA damage); high blood pressure that could lead to fatty deposits on artery walls; and activation of the body’s stress response.

Dr. Wesselink said that the increased risk of fibroids among Black women was not explained by known risk factors, or by socioeconomic status, or access to or quality of health care.

“We are still trying to figure out what specific exposures explain this disparity. Possible explanations that are under investigation include stress throughout life due to systematic oppression and racism; vitamin D deficiency; and environmental factors like air pollution, which we know are inequitably distributed across populations in the United States. “There have now been three studies suggesting a link between air pollution and fibroids, but ours is the first to show this in Black women. Because Black women are inequitably exposed to air pollution, these findings have important implications for racial disparity in fibroids.”

The study has some limitations. These include the way exposure to air pollution was measured; the fact that women reported doctors’ diagnoses of fibroids, which could have led to an under-estimation of the problem; and that the researchers were unable to measure factors that could affect the results, such as vitamin D exposure.

Dr. Wesselink said: “Vitamin D deficiency is a key hypothesis that is under investigation to explain the racial disparity in fibroids. It is certainly possible that our findings could be explained by vitamin D. This is something that should be considered in future work on this topic.”

She concluded: “Further research and additional funding is needed to understand the role of air pollution in fibroid development. For instance, a prospective, ultrasound-based study could identify fibroids, regardless of whether or not they are causing symptoms that lead to women seeking medical care. In addition, we need to consider the role of other features in the physical and built environment in the development of fibroids; factors such as environmental noise, access to green spaces and other neighbourhood exposures.”

Ozone in air pollution is linked to fibroid development in Black women
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EU aims at ‘zero pollution’ in air, water and soil by 2050

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

The European Commission on Wednesday (12 May) unveiled a plan to reduce pollution to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems by 2050 – when the EU aims to become climate neutral.

Air pollution is considered the biggest environmental risk to human health in the EU. Every year, it causes 400,000 premature deaths, 48,000 cases of heart disease as well as 6.5 million cases of chronic sleep disturbance to noise.

“New green technologies already here can help reduce pollution and offer new business opportunities,” said the EU commissioner in charge of the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, arguing that recovery funds can support this goal.

“Europe’s efforts to build back a cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable economy must likewise contribute to achieving the zero pollution ambition,” he added.

In its ‘zero pollution’ action plan, Brussels set out several targets for the next decade, including reducing the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution by 55 percent.

In 2022, the EU will propose to align its currently less stringent standards on air quality more closely to the World Health Organization.

There are currently 31 ongoing infringement procedures against 18 member states for failing to implement EU air quality rules at national level.

Last year, the commission concluded that a majority of member states were not on target to deliver their air-pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030.

The EU executive also wants to improve seawater quality by halving plastic litter and reducing microplastics by 2030. This should also lead to having cleaner water from the tap all across Europe, it said.

There are currently 30 ongoing cases against 19 member states for breaching EU law on urban water waste, plus four covering drinking water law.

Aiming to boost soil quality, the EU commission committed to reducing by 50 percent nutrient losses and the use and risk of chemical pesticides – a target already included in its Fram to Fork strategy.

Meanwhile, the 27-members bloc also aims to significantly reduce waste generation and halve residual municipal waste in the next decade.

Brussels is currently reviewing EU waste laws to adapt them to the clean and circular economy principle.

The EU Commission will monitor progress of this action plan, and identify whether additional action is needed to reach targets, by 2025.

EU aims at ‘zero pollution’ in air, water and soil by 2050
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Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during first COVID-19 wave, prevented 150 premature deaths

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during the first wave of COVID-19, largely as a result of mobility restrictions. Until recently, however, the effect of this improvement on the health of the population was poorly understood.

A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, together with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), has estimated that this improvement in air quality prevented around 150 premature deaths in Spain’s provincial capital cities.

Several analyses have estimated the mortality reduction from improved air quality during lockdown periods in China and Europe and found that a substantial number of premature deaths have been avoided.

The new study, published in Environmental Pollution, is the first to focus on Spain, specifically 47 provincial capitals. First, the researchers assessed changes in levels of air pollution–nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)–during the lockdown period (57 days) and deconfinement period (42 days) of the first wave of COVID-19, which occurred between March and June 2020. The team then estimated the impact of these air quality changes on mortality at the population level.

“We used machine-learning techniques to take into account the influence of meteorological factors when quantifying the effect of lockdown on air quality levels,” he noted. “To estimate changes in mortality, we specifically fitted epidemiological models based on historical health and air pollution data in each provincial capital city.” – Hicham Achebak, Study Lead Author and Researcher, Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona Institute for Global Health

The authors found that NO2 levels decreased by 51% and 36% during the lockdown and deconfinement periods, respectively, during the first wave of COVID-19. The level of ozone decreased much less on average–by 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively–although it increased in some of the most populous cities.

Regarding the impact of the reduction in NO2 on premature mortality, the authors estimated that around 120 and 50 deaths were avoided during lockdown and deconfinement, respectively, for a total of approximately 170 premature deaths avoided. COVID-19 lockdowns led to “unprecedented reductions in NO2 concentrations, especially when the most stringent measures to reduce viral spread were applied, reaching up to 65% in some of the cities studied,” explained Hervé Petetin, researcher at BSC-CNS, who was responsible for the application of machine-learning techniques. Most of the NO2 emissions in cities come from vehicles, in particular those with diesel-powered engines.

In the case of ozone, the decrease was so small that no premature deaths could be attributed to it. In fact, the researchers estimated that premature mortality attributable to this pollutant increased by approximately 20 deaths during the study period. Carlos Pérez García-Pando, ICREA research professor, AXA professor and head of the BSC-CNS Atmospheric Composition Group, which participated in the study, explained: “Even though, on average, there was a small reduction in ozone during the study period, ozone levels increased in the most populous cities, especially Barcelona and Madrid.” He added:

“Ozone is a secondary pollutant that can increase when levels of nitrogen oxides decrease in environments that are saturated with this pollutant, such as large urban areas.” The study shows that “potential trade-offs between multiple pollutants should be taken into account when evaluating the health impacts of environmental exposures,” he concluded.

Joan Ballester , researcher at ISGlobal and coordinator of the study, commented: “The number of deaths prevented by improvements in air quality in Spain could be greater.” The researcher cited two main reasons for this assertion: “First, our study focused on provincial capitals, but there are other cities with high levels of air pollution. Second, we did not take into account reductions in fine particulate matter, which were relatively modest compared to the reductions in NO2 but most likely contributed to a further decrease in premature mortality.”

“These findings demonstrate the major short-term health benefits associated with reducing air pollution,” added Ballester. “With permanent reductions in emissions, the positive effects could be even greater.” In addition to reducing premature mortality, improvements in air quality “could reduce the disease burden of epidemics that cause respiratory infections such as COVID-19, since diseases caused by long-term exposure to air pollution are in turn risk factors for the severity and mortality of coronavirus infection,” concluded the researcher.

Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during first COVID-19 wave, prevented 150 premature deaths
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Farms’ air pollution contributes to almost 18K deaths in US annually: study

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Farming-related pollution leads to nearly 18,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to a new study published Monday.

Reduced air quality from the agriculture industry results in 17,900 deaths annually, with ammonia accounting for 69 percent of those deaths, researchers wrote in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many of the deaths occurred in California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest Corn Belt, researchers found, noting that about 80 percent of the deaths are related to pollution from animal agriculture. Such pollutants are much more loosely restricted under the Clean Air Act than comparable pollutants from sources such as vehicles and factories.

“We find that improvements in agricultural production, such as changing livestock feed practices to reduce the amount of excess protein ingested and therefore excreted as nitrogen, or using fertilizer amendments and inhibitors, can greatly reduce air quality–related health damages,” the study’s conclusion stated. “Implementing measures to reduce agricultural emissions across all producers could prevent 7,900 deaths per year (50% of total deaths from food production).”

Researchers wrote that the most substantial benefits could come from altering livestock waste management and fertilizer application procedures, projecting that 3,600 deaths a year could be prevented by producer-side interventions in only the top 10 percent of counties with high death rates from pollution.

The study also makes recommendations for demand-side interventions that could reduce risks, particularly reduced consumption of meat. Substitution of poultry in place of red meat could prevent more than 6,000 deaths a year, according to the study.

Environmentalists and sustainability advocates have frequently pointed to meat production as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates saying in February that “all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef.”

Researchers in the report published Monday wrote, “Many of the food production solutions that could reduce air quality–related health damages, such as improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop and livestock production, or decreasing food loss and waste, are likely accompanied by other environmental benefits, such as decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient pollution, and undesirable land-use change.”

Farms’ air pollution contributes to almost 18K deaths in US annually: study | TheHill
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Systemic inequalities driving exposure to high indoor air pollution in London

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Systemic inequalities mean that low-income households in London are more likely to be exposed to higher levels of indoor air pollution, according to a report by UCL researchers.

The biggest factors are the quality of housing and the characteristics of the surrounding environment, taking location and levels of outdoor air pollution into account—factors beyond occupants’ control.

Air pollution exposure is the greatest environmental health threat in the UK, with long-term exposures estimated to cause 28,000-36,000 premature deaths a year.

In the paper, published in Buildings and Cities, researchers used available data and models, assembling evidence to examine five factors explaining why lower socio-economic groups may be exposed to higher levels of indoor air pollution in their homes, focusing on London and the pollutants PM2.5, NOx and CO. These pollutants were selected as they are primarily produced by combustion processes, such as cooking or burning fuel, and are therefore found in most households.

The factors were: housing location and ambient outdoor levels of pollution; housing characteristics including ventilation properties and internal sources of pollution; occupant behaviours; time spent indoors; and underlying health conditions. London was the focus because housing there isn’t typically representative of the rest of the country, with a higher proportion of renters and flats as dwellings.

The team used a systems approach highlighting interactions and links between factors to show how they lead to systemic exposure inequalities, with lower income households having limited opportunities to improve their indoor air quality.

Lead author, Ph.D. candidate Lauren Ferguson, (UCL Energy Institute and UCL Institute for Environmental Design & Engineering) said: “This research highlights that exposure to indoor air pollution can lead to health inequalities depending on socio-economic status. Differences in housing quality and characteristics of the surrounding areas mean low-income households are likely to bear a disproportionate risk of elevated exposure to indoor air pollution.

“Poor quality housing can lead to a number of negative health effects and is therefore an area which should be targeted in order to address the growing health inequalities gap in the UK.”

Air pollution exposure is associated with health problems such as respiratory and cardiovascular complications, birth defects, childhood asthma cases and sudden infant deaths. Long term exposure to particulate matter (PM) has been linked to adult depression, although this needs more research.

Low socio-economic status (SES) groups are more likely to live in higher density flats and smaller dwellings and areas of London with higher levels of air pollution.

Whilst high density dwellings often have lower ventilation levels which can prevent some outdoor air pollution from getting in, this is not sufficient to offset living in an area of high outdoor pollution. Dwellings with low levels of ventilation prevent indoor air pollution from activities including cooking and smoking from escaping, and are more vulnerable to local pollution from neighbours’ cooking or smoking.

Levels of smoking are higher amongst low SES groups, with 25.5% of those in routine and manual occupations smoking regularly, compared with 15.7% in intermediate occupations and 10.2% in managerial and professional occupations. Low SES groups also report longer cooking durations, increasing exposure to pollution.

Low SES groups are more likely to spend less time outdoors, due to a variety of factors including higher levels of unemployment, fewer after-school clubs and little access to green spaces. This raises their susceptibility to developing health conditions from increased exposure to indoor air pollution.

They are at a higher risk of experiencing underlying health conditions, material deprivation and psychological stress, making them more susceptible to air pollution. Material deprivation includes lack of access to healthcare, poor diet—which is strongly linked to income class—and lack of physical activity, which is linked to spending more time indoors due to the factors mentioned above.

The paper builds on previous research in 2020 on how concentrations of indoor domestic air pollution may vary between SES groups. The researchers hope the findings will influence policy decisions regarding air pollution and housing in London, and call for action to improve housing quality, promote and support interventions to reduce exposure to outdoor air pollution and encourage behavioural change to minimise risk factors from smoking and spending large amounts of time indoors.

Systemic inequalities driving exposure to high indoor air pollution in London
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Fireplaces and stoves are bigger polluters than traffic

Posted on May 7, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Increases in wood burning have offset gains in other areas, including cleaning up exhaust fumes

Fireplaces and stoves are now the largest single source of primary particle pollution in the UK, greater than traffic and industry. About 40% of the UK’s primary particle pollution comes from just 7% of homes that burn solid fuel. Will the new ban on sales of coal and wet wood in England help the problem or risk making it worse?

In 1950s Britain, replacing coal with so-called smokeless fuel (made from powered coal and industrial waste coke) was the main solution to our smogs. London’s particle pollution decreased by 66% in just 10 years. A similar ban was implemented in Dublin in 1990 and particle pollution decreased by 70% in one year.

These are dramatic improvements but after the ban the cities were still significantly polluted by solid fuel. In London the gradual rollout of gas central heating played an important role in continuing to improve air pollution through the 1970s.

But UK solid-fuel users mainly burn wood. Government estimates suggest increases in wood burning since 2005 have offset gains from other sectors, including cleaning up traffic exhaust.

Banning the sale of wet wood has not been tried before. According to the UK government, burning wet wood produces about four times as much particle pollution as dry wood. However, wet wood accounts for about only 20% of the total being burnt, limiting the potential impact of the ban.

The wood that people buy in garages or garden centres is not labelled as dry or wet. The ban will mean that sellers will now only sell dry wood – but the fear is that this could encourage people to believe they can burn more solid fuels at home, even if it is smokeless fuels and dry woods. Writing in Country Living, Emma-Louise Pritchard concludes that the new rules “mean that those of us with fires or wood-burning stoves in our homes can continue to light them with added peace of mind”.

The sale of fuels made from coffee grounds and olive waste may further encourage home burning. In Dublin, despite the coal ban, the marketing of wood and peat as green biofuels has contributed to solid-fuel heating remaining the biggest source of particle pollution in the city.

Several local councils, including Camden in north London, are clearer in their messaging. They have asked people not to heat their homes with any solid fuels.

Fireplaces and stoves are bigger polluters than traffic | Air pollution | The Guardian

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