Councils have been warned of possible legal action from the stove industry due to their campaigns cautioning about the dangers of wood burning.
According to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), 30% of councils in areas with high use of wood burning stoves had been contacted by the Stove Industry Association (SIA).
The author of the BMJ articleSophie Borland, has revealed that the local authorities were lobbied or received letters suggesting that legal action was being considered by the SIA.
A joint public awareness campaign on the risks of wood burning had been produced in 2023 by the following eight London boroughs: Croydon, Haringey, Islington, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, and Wandsworth.
However, the SIA had claimed that the campaign material did not comply with the UK’s advertising codes and argued the information was not accurate or honest, the BMJ has confirmed.
The SIA is also understood to have sent press releases to other councils citing the apparent ‘health and wellbeing benefits’ of wood burning, such as lower blood pressure and reduced anxiety, despite the Government identifying domestic burning as a major contributor to fine particle air pollution, with medical experts linking it to harmful health impacts.
England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, told the BMJ: ‘Air pollution is an extremely important, solvable health problem that leads to many diseases, including asthma in children, cancers, heart disease, and stroke. The effects of air pollution are greatest on the most vulnerable people—children, pregnant women, and people with pre-existing cardiovascular or lung conditions who can be exposed to outdoor air pollution without any choice.
‘In urban areas, high concentrations of medically vulnerable people and high concentration of solid fuel burning can combine. The growth of wood burning stoves in urban areas now contributes a significant and growing proportion of air pollution and in some places is reversing many decades of progress.’
An SIA spokesperson said: ‘The correspondence we have had in the past with local authorities and trading standards has been aimed at trying to provide a balanced and educational position on behalf of our members. At no point have we intentionally set out to undermine public awareness about the health effects of domestic burning.’
They added that air pollution is a serious issue and highlighted the importance of following best practice to ensure emissions are reduced.
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