Yet another scientific study shows that air pollution from wood burning in rural areas is significantly lowering air quality in the countryside making the air in some rural areas as polluted as it is in towns and cities.
Studies in Ireland and Germany have also shown that villages and small towns are especially affected by air pollution from wood and solid-fuel heating during winter.
Now more research, this time from a village in Slovenia has proved once again that pollution from woodburning in rural areas is contributing to harmful levels of air pollution with 34 days out of 88 days exceeding the legal limits for air pollution. As one researcher said of woodsmoke:
“After walking for two hours, three times a day we could not wash off the smell”
Over here in Scotland, the Stirlingshire Villages Project showed and continues to actively show how pollution from woodsmoke is engulfing rural villages as some of our members who live in rural villages can also attest to. The air pollution sensors installed as part of the Stirlingshrie Villages Project continue to gather information in real time and highlight how polluted these rural areas are from woodburning. See for yourself here
Interestingly, in all of these studies, the populations of these villages were unaware of how polluted their village was and that woodsmoke was a big contributer to that pollution. They were also unaware of how harmful woodsmoke was to their health.
This needs to change and the Scottish Government must launch a public awareness campaign on the health harming effects of woodsmoke and phase out this archaic inefficient source of heating in cities, towns and rural areas. We believe people in rural areas deserve the right to breathe clean air free from polluting toxic woodsmoke just as much as people in towns and cities do.