It’s a nightmare to be honest! Our story is similar to many others. We live in a smallish town in Dorset and over the past 2/3 years the air quality in Winter has been getting worse and worse due to more and more homes installing and using wood burners. Just looking at the homes that surround my house either in my street or the street behind ours, I can see 12 homes that have a wood burner.
If you go for a walk in the evening the air is horrible to breathe and you come back smelling of smoke. What's worse though is that we're being harmed by the smoke in our own home and that's with all of the doors and windows closed. You can smell if the neighbours closest to us are burning wood and my family and I regularly suffer from sore throats / sinuses as a result. I genuinely fear the unseen affect that this could be having on our health.
This also has a huge impact on our mental health - especially that of my wife and I. We feel trapped in our homes and almost powerless to stop our family from being harmed. I have approached a couple of neighbours and posted your leaflets through their doors but this seems to have had limited impact.
An unseen impact is also the cost of items we've bought to help minimise the issue. We've bought 3 air purifiers and because we can't open our bathroom windows in the evening, have also had to purchase a dehumidifier to help reduce damp in our bathroom.
I've contacted my Town and County Councils to ask if they can support us. My Town Council had no response and just referred my query to the County Council. I did have a detailed email exchange with an Air Quality Officer at Dorset Council but he basically said they've got no authority to stop someone burning wood, just advice on how to burn better - but with no way of then ensuring anyone is following the guidelines!
I'm just generally quite depressed about the situation if I'm honest, as there is a clear issue affecting people's health but with no action being taken to reduce this. If anything the issue is just getting worse. I'd love to do something about it and was looking to invest in an Air Quality monitor to take readings at my property 24/7 (I'm just waiting to be able to afford a decent one!). I was then hoping to start a local Air Quality Facebook group where I can share these readings regularly and start of educate people on the impact of wood burning. I genuinely think there are lots of wood burners who just don't realise the harm that it has on their health and that of their neighbours. Not everyone will change their ways but I'm sure it will have some impact.
Gavin, Dorset