Burning wood and coal in the home

Household burning, such as open fires and stoves, is now the biggest source of particulate matter pollution and causes poor indoor air quality that can affect our health. Particulate matter is a carcinogen and can cause asthma, heart disease and other illnesses affecting lungs, hearts and brains.

This November, Colchester Council are launching a Home Burning campaign to help local people take positive action to reduce risks and improve air quality both inside and outside the home when they use an open fire or stove.

The Home Burning campaign is encouraging people to ‘burn safe’, ‘burn better’, ‘burn clean’ and ‘burn less’. These simple actions limit harmful pollutants entering the air and damaging health, save people money, as well as ensuring home burners stay clean and well maintained.

Some ideas on how we can improve how we burn wood and coal in the home are listed below. 

• How we can improve the way we burn
• Knowing which fuels to burn 
• Maintaining an open fire or stove