colintinker.bsky.social
@colintinker.bsky.social
Reposted
Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury.
My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
It hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity | George Monbiot
Fixing that hole could have cost under £100; the cost of not doing so is limitless. My prang highlights the neoliberal folly of false economies, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
October 4, 2025 at 6:24 AM
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“Log burning stoves damage lungs 'in the same way as smoking,’ new study shows”: www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/uk-worl...
Log burning stoves damage lungs 'in the same way as smoking'
Wood burners have been linked to a serious decline in lung function in a major new study
www.leicestermercury.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 11:53 PM
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Why do the stove industry want to poison us?

Why are modern wood burning stoves allowed in newbuild homes in the UK Future Homes Standard?

UK government data shows they are very polluting.

Full video on Youtube:
youtu.be/2YgUhzUCPV0
September 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM
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"We’ve got to the point where the burden of ill health caused by #AirPollution is so huge, I’m asking myself: ‘What will it take to make the public demand more action?’." Well said @ellarobertafdn.bsky.social.

Such a powerful read about the rise of #LungCancer in non-smoking, healthy young women.
‘I was told I had two weeks to live’ – why are so many young, fit, non-smoking women getting lung cancer?
For decades, lung cancer has been viewed as a disease of older men who smoked. Now, cases among young women are on the rise and doctors are baffled. Could air pollution be behind it?
www.theguardian.com
September 15, 2025 at 7:32 AM
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Domestic #Woodburning has significant impacts on health & needs to be addressed urgently by Gov, its the largest source of fine particulate matter PM2.5 in UK homes & of the 8% of population who own a wood stove, 8%, only 8% of these burn out of necessity www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/evidence-res...
Policy pathway to reduce air pollution by phasing out domestic burning by 2030
Wood burning in our homes is a key cause of air pollution and has significant impacts both on people’s health and the environment. We outline five critical problems which currently act as barriers to ...
www.actionforcleanair.org.uk
September 16, 2025 at 7:02 AM
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#LAEI2022 | New treasure trove from @mayoroflondon.bsky.social about #AirPollution emission sources in London 2022 with forecasts (as we requested) for 2025 and 2030. #WoodBurning, Diesel, Commercial Cooking and Construction stand out from a look ahead data.london.gov.uk/dataset/lond...
August 17, 2025 at 10:22 AM
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In a TV news segment about lung cancer: “In patients that have a history of wood burning, wood-burning stoves, or things used to heat, any smoke exposure—not just smoking, but smoke exposure in general—that’s a risk factor,” Dr. Phillips [a pulmonologist] explained. www.wspa.com/news/ask-the...
August 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
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Burning wood emits more CO2 per unit of energy than coal due to wood’s lower energy density. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2006 noted that wood and wood wastes have a greenhouse emission factor ~20% higher than coal.

www.nrdc.org/stories/no-b...
No, Burning Wood Fuels Is Not Climate-Friendly
As Europe and the United States look to cut their carbon emissions, the biomass industry wants us to pretend that logging forests in the American South could help.
www.nrdc.org
August 14, 2025 at 6:04 PM
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Breathing polluted air for just one hour can reduce your ability to focus and recognize emotions up to four hours later—even if you only breathe through your mouth.

Clean air helps your brain work better.

Study: nature.com/articles/s41...
August 8, 2025 at 8:50 AM
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The Industry’s promises of greatly reduced #AirPollution from new ‘miracle’ eco stoves proved to be hollow: wood burning now UK’s largest source of deadly PM2.5 pollution.
Invisible & harmful, PM2.5 linked to heart attack, stroke, dementia, asthma & permanent harm to children’s growing bodies.
June 26, 2025 at 8:53 AM
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More importantly, our NEIGHBOUR’S heating choice should not impact our health. We get the brunt of the outrageous pollution levels with “modern” stoves being the single largest emission source of Benzo[a]pyrene, Benzene and many other toxic and carcinogenic emissions.
June 11, 2025 at 10:10 AM
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💚 Calling the health sector! Please sign this @globalactionplan.bsky.social‬ letter, backed by ‪@greatormondst.bsky.social‬ & others. It asks Government to adopt World Health Organization #AirQuality guidelines to protect our #Health. This will be presented to MPs at next week's #CleanAirDay event.
The case for health sector action for clean air
Air pollution is now the second leading risk factor for death ahead of tobacco and poor diet globally; in the UK we see some of the worst childhood asthma rates in Europe: the need for the health…
www.globalactionplan.org.uk
June 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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Air pollution can harm every organ in your body, posing particular risks to your brain, heart and lung health ❤️‍🩹

This #CleanAirDay, learn more about the health harms of air pollution throughout our lives ⬇️

www.cleanairhub.org.uk
June 11, 2025 at 1:02 PM
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You have NOT cleaned the air in many outer London suburbs @london.gov.uk Until you acknowledge the damage from “”Ecodesign” stoves, the lives of vulnerable Londoners are at risk.This Breathe London node is a School Street in a low traffic part of ULEZ, yet Surbiton has worst air pollution in the UK.
May 23, 2025 at 11:06 AM
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Wood burning in our homes is now the largest source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution in the UK, with significant impacts both on people’s health and the environment.

Read our newly-launched evidence-based policy pathway for government🔽

www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/evidence-res...
December 10, 2024 at 4:14 PM
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It’s been known for a long time that wood smoke is similar to cigarette smoke and that it harms children. The study this quote is taken from, for instance, was published in 1993. (It found that fine particle pollution from wood burning makes breathing more difficult for young asthmatic children.)
May 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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Why is there no health warning on a wood stove?

Wood smoke contains most of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke, including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Tobacco products have had health warning messages for years - it's time for stoves to have the same. #AirPollution #Health
May 15, 2025 at 8:01 AM
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Yep!

"The fundamental reason certification test procedures are not predictive of real-world emissions during in-home use is that there is a host of variables that make in-home usage quite different from the controlled test conditions in the laboratory."

web.archive.org/web/20170622...
Straight Talk
Hearth & Home Magazine - A Publication from Village West Publishing
web.archive.org
May 17, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted
However, this lobby group has been effective in manipulating UK policy, where wood stoves are now permitted as 'secondary heating sources'.

I wrote about the Stove Industry Alliance and why people burn wood here: medium.com/the-new-clim...
Replacing fossil fuels and biomass with cleaner alternatives in residential heating and cooking can decrease the social health costs, say researchers - EPHA
New report by CE Delft investigating the health-related costs to society of outdoor air pollution caused by residential heating and cooking.
tinyurl.com
May 8, 2025 at 11:11 AM