I have a neighbour who is insisting that we burn coal instead of dry seasoned wood in our stove. He claims that the smoke is getting into his house even though I have been over and could not smell anything. I had the chimney re-lined when we moved in 6 months ago. Where do I stand on this?
Wood Burning Stoves and Neighbour Disputes
If a neighbour has installed a wood burning stove and you are concerned about smoke, your options depend on several factors. The main one is whether you live in a Smoke Control Area and what fuel is being burned.
Wood burners have become popular in recent years, but they can cause friction between neighbours when smoke drifts into nearby gardens or through open windows. Understanding the rules can help you determine whether you have grounds to complain.
Check your legal rights in any neighbour dispute. Takes 1 minute.
Try our Neighbour Rights Checker free, here on this site →Smoke Control Areas
Many urban and suburban parts of the UK fall within Smoke Control Areas, though rural locations are less commonly included. These were originally created under the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, which tackled pollution from coal fires in homes and industrial premises. The relevant law is now contained in the Clean Air Act 1993.
In a Smoke Control Area, it is an offence to emit smoke from a chimney unless you are burning an authorised fuel or using an exempt appliance. Many modern wood burning stoves are DEFRA exempt, meaning they can legally be used in these areas provided they burn the correct fuel. Fines for breaching these rules can reach £1,000.
You can check whether your area is covered by searching on GOV.UK or contacting your local council.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
What Counts as a Problem
Even if a stove is being used legally, excessive smoke can still be treated as a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This applies where smoke is causing a genuine interference with your use and enjoyment of your property. Environmental Health Officers will typically assess whether the smoke is prejudicial to health or constitutes a nuisance.
Occasional visible smoke when the stove is first lit may not be enough. The issue generally needs to be persistent over several weeks or months, or particularly severe in its effects. Factors that can make things worse include burning unseasoned or wet wood, which produces more smoke, a poorly maintained flue or chimney, and inadequate chimney height relative to neighbouring properties.
Burning household waste or treated timber is illegal regardless of whether you live in a Smoke Control Area, as this releases toxic pollutants. Wood smoke itself can cause respiratory problems, which is one reason these regulations exist.
What You Can Do
A direct conversation is often the simplest starting point. Your neighbour may not realise the smoke is affecting you, and they might be willing to change their fuel or adjust when they light the stove.
If this does not resolve matters, you can make a formal complaint to your local council. The environmental health team can investigate and, if they find a statutory nuisance, may serve an abatement notice requiring the problem to be fixed.
Keep a record of when the smoke occurs, how long it lasts, and how it affects you. Photos or videos can help support your complaint. In a Smoke Control Area, the council may also consider whether the stove or fuel complies with the regulations.
If the council does not act, or you remain unsatisfied, you may have the option of taking private action through the magistrates court. This requires thorough documentation and you should consider seeking legal advice before proceeding.
For detailed guidance on Smoke Control Areas and exempt appliances, see the Smoke Control Areas page on GOV.UK.
People using these appliances in built up residential areas need to wake up to the harm they are causing to their neighbours. Wood smoke is really harmful for our health and if people want to take the risk with their own health and that of their family, that is one thing but they should not be allowed to pollute neighbouring homes and gardens with this toxic pollution. The pollution from their chimneys does get into neighbouring homes. Why isn't the government acting to protect public health?
I live in a street where several households use wood burners and it is horrible and it causes unnecessary stress to people when they know this pollution they're being forced to breathe in is really harmful but they can't do anything about it! It is an appalling situation and the worst thing is that most people using wood burners in residential areas are doing so out of choice and have cleaner healthier heating options in their homes. Let's all hope a new government will take this serious issue more seriously in 2024. We can but hope!
The farmer has a Quarry along the lane, that he either rents or owns from whoever the land owner is on the mountain where we live, I own a cottage on the lane where we both live. The farmer lives in a farmhouse he built, further along the lane, away from my cottage, we’re friendly. But he has allowed this guy (not paying taxes) to live in a van adapted for living, in this quarry, he did last winter, (I mentioned it to the farmer’s mother back then) and again this winter. And the smoke from his van, in this quarry which is higher up off the road, drifts right towards my cottage at night, and the smoke is getting in my bloody bedroom window. It’s just stressing me out and affecting my health. My quality of life and breathing. I’ve reported it tonight to the council, just more for advice, than anything else, doubt they will do anything, I just don’t know what to do. I’m scared to speak to the farmer, though I’m friendly with him.
I’ve lived around smoke before, when I lived with my ex, we’d burn wood all the time, whilst I liked it, great source of heat, all my stuff, my clothes would stink of smoke, afterwards. I have two open fires myself but never use them really. And they’re proper fire places. For use with coal though.
Local council seem interested and happy to state why them doing anything is tricky. Meanwhile our house smells of smoke and on occasion causes irritation to eyes and throat.
There has to be something somewhere that challenges this situation. Are there any good news stories to share?
We really are getting desperate!
They would only do anything if smoke was coming but in there eyes clear toxic fumes was ok.
London are now enlarging there ultra low emission zone for vehicles. But a house next door can have a chimney chucking out toxic fumes !
a meter above bungalow roof. Smoke pouring out and wafting over adjacent bungalows.
Every day from September to May.
I run round at 8 am opening and closing my windows..
I cannot put washing out or spend time in my garden during those months.
The smoke stinks us out.
How are these burners allowed.
I lived through smog !! It seems we are hell bent on returning to those dreadful days.
Why is this allowed to continue.
My daughter is asthmatic and yes coughing has started again
However, my neighbours garden back on to the side of my house and he has no problem burning his wet garden waste in an old metal bin less than 3 metre from the side of my house. The smell fills my garage and hallway.
It doesn’t take much to spare a thought for those around you.
the council don’t have the power to do anything about it. They only send out a
letter to the offender and that's it. So anything can be burnt on them as long as no black smoke or any kind of smoke comes out. But clear toxic fumes are aloud in the present system.
You often see pallets, joists, rafters, floor boards ,fence posts and wood flooring
ideal for burning advertised. What chemicals are in them who knows.
Shutting the toxic fumes out is impossible by closing all the windows they will still come in. The molecule size off the fumes must be similar size to oxygen.
And yes, I am aware that cop26 is set up to discuss climate change, not particulates in the air, but the same calamitous human mindset that has got the health of our planet in a perilous state, exists in the idiotic insistence that it is a human right to poison human inhabitants with smoke of same said planet.
I absolutely love my house but I have realized I have to sell it as I can never sleep or open windows and I work from home.
The problem is where can I move to escape the smog? They are everywhere now.
No one cares about the toxins or particulates . The people who feel this way need to group together and campaign. We have a right to clean air! Surely more people must agree?
In fact I have been subject to threats, hostile retorts and offensive remarks.
Not many people know about this petition which, due to lack of awareness, only has 420 signatories.
Need 100,000. There must be 100,000 people sick to death of woodsmoke.
Up to us all.
This is God's earth and no one has a right to poison it and cause a revolting stench to permeate the air we breathe
But we've seen their slow, agonising pace before when it took them until 2013 to eventually enforce even the minimum of particulate emission restrictions on diesel engines (Euro 5b), resulting in people like me having to give up cycling to work for 25 years (the length of a life sentence), while the USA (yes, the USA!) saw fit to enforce emission restrictions as early as 1998 which were adequate to prevent the use/sale of poor-emission European diesel vehicles. Anyway, why print this here? Well, about 5 houses within 500metres of mine have now had these fires (plus flume/chimney) retrofitted to their previously "clean-air-friendly" properties and I now have to keep all my windows closed for most of the day and night between October and April unless I want to feel like I'm permanently sitting by a campfire, downwind! I am a singer and an active person, and my life in Britain has been severely affected, not least my fitness and health, because of the constant propensity to pollute the air in this ignorant, backward country. I can only conclude, from reading text about this on "Problem Neighbours" and other related websites, that I may as well not bother complaining because the laws of this land are not on the side of the active, healthy living person. There is never any emphasis on clean air in the UK and people just love to pollute. Please share any similar views/experiences so that I can at least feel like I'm not the only Brit suffering here. Thanks folks. Phew, feel better now! (as long as I keep the windows shut). Peace, Daz.
I totally understand and appreciate all the stress you are all experiencing due to these log burners.
I have an issue where I live and the mental stress, aside from covid-19 and other health issues is really taking its toll.
Can anyone suggest a decent pm2.5 particle monitor please? These particles are so toxic, worse than pm10's.
I just can't understand why they are allowed to pollute the air. Surely this is so unhealthy? The fumes are rancid, acrid, stale and often blow in well into the early hours after burner is inactive. We like our windows open in all weather, but the stench just blows in, this is in the summer too, I just don't understand why the burner is used in the summer months, bizarre!
Any advice is much appreciated.
Good luck to you all.
No reverence here.
His wood burning stove has been lit for a month now.
God help.me.
The vile smoke billows around my house.
My daughter has had extremely bad asthma attacks.
I cannot open my windows which I like doing every morning.
The smell sometimes is sulphur !
There should be a law banning all of these vile burners.
He burns anything and everything.
He is a total inconsiderate horrible man
Please google Victoria White's article "The truth hurts, but lungs full of smoke hurts more"
For me, I've been practising to see if I can actually hold my breath for the coming entire six months, hey I can already do two whole minutes.
Good luck everybody.
Winter is coming.....
My immediate neighbour is a narcissist and uses his fire as a weapon. When anyone complains he puffs his chest out and declares that nothing will stop him and he has a while field of trees to cut down. Vile specimen.
This is UK in the 21st century. All that ignorance makes me despair for the future.
It’s a shame that there wasn’t a way to put all the complaints together, I was told by our environmental health officer ,that I was an isolated case.
It is far from being isolated, in fact it is nothing short of a national health hazard To allow these burners to be sited in residential areas.
I thought we were trying to make the air cleaner for our children.
Perhaps it they taught the future of tomorrow how much harm burning wood does to people,maybe the parents would stop effecting their neighbours health and their own.
I really do feel for you stardust, and all the others who are having to suffer particle matter and fumes when they should be breathing fresh air
I ask myself why oh why would you burn anything in your Woodburner during the summer. I have asthma and severe hay-fever etc. Also the irony, if the smell is too bad I open my lounge window and the same neighbour smokes in a conservatory with a window open that comes straight into my house also???!!! They do it on purpose I am sure because they were after half of my garden from the council so I think that they are trying to 'smoke me out'. I have a child also and it affects him? Selfish people in this world?
I've tried, Hetas, defra, local and government mp's and all point me into the direction of our council environmental health.
Unfortunately they have no electronic test equipment and are never been around when the problem happens, they finish work at 5pm and the log burner is lit Overnight.this produces the most pollution.
I have also bought a meter which at its worst gives a reading of over 45 Pm 2.5, that is bordering on unhealthy air quality.
Our neighbour has freshly cut trees delivered regularly, so has a plentiful supply of different types of wood some of which smells foul when burnt.
The air in our home can be that bad that it causes breathing issues,burning eyes and coughing.No help in this covid 19 environment
These symptoms are horrible to live with,and I have the greatest of sympathy to those of you who are suffering the same as us, with no help.
Reading all the separate posts from around the country, this is clearly a problem that is nationwide,and is not being addressed.
You gave very good information and I have made a note of everything.
thank you again.
Firstly you are not alone.
You get across perfectly well how angry, frustrated and baffled you/we all are that this scourge is allowed into our home.
Secondly.
Definitely get an air monitor first. I've bought the iq air monitor (swiss made) for £250. It tells you what amount of pm 2.5's are in the air)(it's a small black band on the screen of the monitor)
That way, by getting the monitor first (if budget allows)you will at least know where you are. It also tells you how much co2 is building up in your home and advises you , er, cheerily, "when you should open your windows if air outside is clear)
The IQ monitor does not, and no other monitor I know of out there in the market, differentiates between what type of smoke is torturing you.
Know this though. Cigarette smoke, unpleasant though it is, is far less a threat than woodburning smoke.
A cheaper purifier out there than the IQ air should alleviate the worst of the smells, including tobacco smoke, but please remember it is cheaper for a reason.....it clears the big pm10 smelly molecules but not all,if any,of the pm 2.5's.
So you have a trade off.
If it's the smell of smoke you want to clear from your room a purifier of about £250 should make a vast improvement, but if you want to stop the tiniest, tiniest, ..er...the actually most lethal pm 2.5 particles damaging you, day by day,then you have to pay for a top of the range purifier, and that costs about £900, from a company called Allergy Cosmos.
This is a hellish position for anybody on limited means to be put in, and all I can do is shake my head and wring my hands in empathy for you.
And hope you can either move home or find the amount you need to deal with this sheer bloody torture we are condemned by our government and local council's to endure.
~~~~~~~~~~
Anyhow, the following statement: "I feel the need to explain that no the smell of cannabis is not caused by me, but comes in from my adjoining neighbour, and I never know if I'm beveled or not " should have read "never know if I'm *believed* or not".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And "I'm not that good with understandinggraphs" should of course read: "understanding graphs.
I would like to start with trying to get an air monitor though, I remember hearing something about an air tester kit or something that Friends of the Earth were offering, I think it was them, not sure, shall have to have a search on that, but I also get bothered by cigarette smoke and the smell of cannabis coming into my home from the adjoining neighbour, who not content with blasting my small residence with loud music and noise, banging doors and moving furniture around in middle of night, but smokes like the proverbial chimney, he's a chain smoker and the smell of that seeps into my house through the walls, it irritates the back of my throat, I can't escape from it anywhere in here, I am shut in my bedroom and the back of my throat starts irritating and feel I want to cough, and then when i open the bedroom the smell of cigarette smoke so strong, and all through the back room and in the bathroom, also they have fry ups in the middle of the night often and that comes in here as well.
As soon as I come in from outside, at the foot of the stairs, you'd think a smoker lived in my house, and one who smokes weed, and whenever the meter reader , or anyone, has had to come in for any reason, I feel the need to explain that no the smell of cannabis is not caused by me, but comes in from my adjoining neighbour, and I never know if I'm beveled or not as they might think that I would say that, knowing they can smell it, and it niggles at me that they might not believe me and think it's me smoking the place out.
Anyhow, sorry digressing all round the houses here, would you think it a good idea to just get the air monitor first if i can find one? I'm not that good with understanding graphs and readings and whatever the results might say, Would it tell me what any air pollution was in here, I mean what was causing it, and whether wood smoke or cigarette smoke? Would it be able to tell the difference and let me know how much was wood burner smoke particles and how much cigarette smoke, or weed smoke , participles in the air in here?
Thanks for your time, if you read this, and sorry I don't feel I'm that good at explaining myself.
Get an air purifier you won't regret it. A good one. See my post below.
The same smoke that has thousands of copd sufferers lying on hospital beds using ventilators that otherwise could be used for corona victims.why don't our politicians see this.and ban woodburners and coal smoke producers in the same way they very sensibly stop individuals harming others today by congregating in groups.
I don;t know why China is not being held accountable for this. Their cruel treatment of live animals, keeping so many different species in small crates all waiting to be killed, species that would normally in nature, never come into contact with one another, that is apparently what has caused this mutated virus, but that is another story. If only people had stayed put when it first broke out and let the Chinese authorities deal with it, as they were advised to do by the government, but no, they had to demand to be brought back over here, and elsewhere in the world, so spreading it everywhere, and so the wood burning stove issue applies to this as well, in that it makes people cough and mucks up their bronchial tubes and air passages and so makes them more susceptible to infection as a result.
I live in a detached suburban house in a seaside town in Scotland and my retirement is diminished due to woodburning neighbours. One has one in his hut and two in his house! The other 8 neighbours have thoughtfully only decided to torment me with one each.
If I were you Clive I would mitigate your current plight as I have done and fork out £250 for an IQ air monitor, and another £900 for an iq air health pro plus air purifier. I got mine from Allergy Cosmos. Cheaper purifiers don't cut it as they only clean the air to 0.3 micrograms, you need to cut it down to 0.003 .
You can gauge the indoor pollution from your neighbour with the air monitor, and this will tell you what speed to put your purifier onto, and run it at low during the night. You need both, or you will use your purifier filter unnecessarily.
This will help your health and your sanity.
The government have "boldly" decided to help the health of it citizens by bringing in regulation to ensure cleaner smoke. I know, they're having a laugh.
Regulating wood smoke stoves will have the same effect on health as the bright wheeze of putting filter tips on cigarettes in the name of safety.
Sometime, for god's sake surely, some politician will have an epiphany and legislate this scourge from our air.
Oh the humanity....
On radio four tonight it has mentioned that there are to be restrictions on what is allowed to be put into wood burners, but how are they going to implement that? And quite honestly, I can't see the people responsible in my area from taking any notice, nothing much is going to stop them from doing what they want, they are very aggressive people, in fact all the people in my area with wood burners are not at all the middle class variety that people here have complained of, but very lower class and ready to take on anyone who dares to complain about anything they do, it isn[t just their wood burners , it is the noise they make as well, but that is another matter!
I am not a killjoy, as I said before, it looks nice to see smoke gently weaving its way upwards on a calm day but quite often it is windy and it blows everywhere, and when the wind is in a particular direction, the smoke opposite blows across to me in thick waves , it blows out across the road and vehicles driving through dense smoke and if it was a bonfire causing that amount of smoke, the local authority would soon do something, but I have been treated with contempt whenever I have complained about chimneys from houses.
It looks nice to see smoke calmly and gently waving upwards from a chimney but sadly my health can no longer cope with having to breath it in. It looks nice to see a warm fire inside a home, but there is so much damage caused by it and now it must stop.
The local environmental health dept has never wanted to know when I have had to complain in the past, but perhaps now they will take it more seriously. Tho I won't hold my breath on that, given their response to me in the past.
The chimney opposite me is on the side of their house and far too low, lower than my bedroom window and the smoke comes straight across to me, I can smell it in my house. and at my friend's house any washing on the line comes in stinking of smoke from his adjoining neighbours, the woman responsible I have heard more than once boasting to the neighbours on the other side about her wood burning stove and how 'posh' she thinks they are, which is laughable as they are the most non posh people you could imagine, being rough and loud mouthed.
Plus these particular people don't just burn usual logs in their stove, but anything they can get their hands on, broken up furniture with all the resultant fumes from the paint and metal parts etc, not to mention the branches from trees cut down, again damaging the environment by cutting down trees.
The people opposite me, are also chopping wood at all hours and using chainsaws. also sell logs in the local shop to encourage even more people to use wood for fuel.
Like someone else mentioned, the selfishness, arrogance and ignorance of many of these people is vile in the extreme.
I don't think any new law is going to do much unless the things can be outlawed altogether or at least have their use very much restricted and so much damage has been caused already by having to breathe in the smoke for years.
It is their freedom, they assert, like they are some kind of mountain self sufficient recluse,to do whatever they want in their own house. Whereas in my house, in my garden, through my vents seeps their toxic lifestyle choice into MY space. I do not want their smoke in my house, my garden, my life.
If I want to have a shower I have to scan the rooftops nearby to see if the air is clean enough for me to open my windows to let the steam out. We now eat our main meal at 3.00 clock in the afternoon (being retired) to let our cooking smells out the window as come 5 o'clock the air is black or brown with suburbies returning home from work and lighting up their wood burners.
Where do you stand?
Unprotected, sidelined, ignored by your environmental health department who declare"woodburning and coal burning are a normal part of domestic living"
That is a direct quote from a local council email to me in response to my complaint to them about this outrage.
Watch any news bulletin about air quality and you get plenty about cars, or power stations, but very little about people living cheek by jowl with monstrous levels of particulate matter (called pm 2.5's) from coal or wood domestic fires.MOO The pollution from your neighbours is super concentrated(unlike road traffic which is often dissipated,or sporadic, depending on the road you live on) and for the life of me I cannot understand where all those people have went that pressurised the government into banning smoking in public places.
Passive cigarette smoking is a nuisance, potentially dangerous, but inhaling woodburning smoke is a life shortening certainty.
That's where you stand. Where I stand.
Flabbergasted.
The family regularly has late night parties, although in their fifties, but we have had to live with that and advise them early in the morning that they need to keep the noise down a bit, typical heavy drinkers who do not understand the noise they create.
The Gypsy caravan this week has had a chimney/flu added to it, so suspecting a wood burning stove has been installed and when fired up last night filled (Was a nice evening so house windows open) filled the house with wood burnt fumes, filled our garage with fumes, next door neighbours with fumes and behind our houses their is a 2 storey block of retirement flats who would have had the same
The chimney/flu is around 13m from the row of houses and around the same distance from the council maintained retirement flats behind but is only around 3.5m high with a flat top flu which just pushed all the smoke out sideways and down into the gardens below,
Can anyone advise if this needs to be higher so as not to get into the 2 storey buildings all around this
Rgds
Smokey Joe
Please look at a sister site to this called "woodburning stoves and chimeneas" it's a bit confusing having two sites to post similar issues you want airing.
I am just totally baffled as to why students and campaigning groups don't attack the complacency behind this ever growing polluting industry.
We need to organise and become militant about this. How we go about this in a non violent way i have no idea. Open to any sensible suggestions though. Anyone?
I first contacted the department after I moved into the property and experienced daily exposure to toxic coal burning by the neighbours and was treated appallingly by the department.
Despite the irrefutable scientific facts and evidence presented the officers replying by email minimised and whitewashed my concerns and refused to intervene.
On account of the abysmal failure of the department I have been forced to suffer years of harmful and nauseating acrid coal smoke pollution including outside wood stove burning by the adjacent neighbours and other residents committing the same offences; including the local pub with two chimneys bellowing out black coal smoke.
My doctor supports my case and can verify the real and detrimental affects solid fuel inhalation has on the human respiratory system and the environment.
I have medical evidence recording a prolonged cough, sore throat and chest including symptoms of heavy passive smoking and choking although I do not smoke.
Every day on the calendar I log repeated occurences of the burning throughout the day and night -365 days a year- in all weathers; causing immense distress and feeling trapped being unable to open the windows freely to ventilate the old building and go outside without being made to reek of acrid sooty coal and having to shower again and rewash clothing. I can hardly even put washing on the line outside.
The stench from the coal also affects my exercise routine as it prevents my taking a jog freely around the local park as the stench and smog envelops the whole atmosphere and my lungs.
I contacted the environmental health dept and spoke a number of times to an officer based there.She asked me to complete log sheets and misled this would be looked into.I also sent video footage and photographic evidence of the black coal smoke bellowing out of the chimney regularly.
At no time did the council officers attend the exact site of the offences and did not investigate properly as they had no intention. I have also witnessed the coal merchants who supply the offending property deliver coal every week.
The officers indefensible response was to excuse themselves from taking action and the only letter they sent to the property was only to ask they examine the manner in which their solid fuel appliance is being used and not the toxic and cancerous substance inexcusably being used and emitted.
I later received a final letter and reply phone call from the Principal Officer refusing to acknowledge the es
She has said I am 'intimidating'. The police were not very sympathetic to me even though I explained that I am most concerned for my husband who has advanced Parkinsons and chronic asthma and the smell seeps into our bathroom vent and is revolting. I am just a grumpy old woman with a grudge, jealous of her fashionable wood burner.
What a waste of police time.
Ban burners.
For some inexplicable reason there is a sister site to this forum .if you input 'wood burning stoves and chimeneas' you will get to see the recent traffic on this subject. At the moment all we can do is wring our hands in despair at having to endure the unendurable regarding smoke. Councils won't help, your local m.p. simply refers you back to environmental health at your local council. It's a circular flow of complacency. I see that for the first time in decades life span is actually declining and I wonder if polluted neighbours doesn't have something to do with it.
Seems Mr. Khan has to "in all fairness" consider the feelings of those poor darlings who went out and bought these devices ....now wait for this..now you will titter.....titter bitterly."..IN GOOD FAITH." Heh heh .....seems these people were conned into buying them as the salesmen who sold them wood burning stoves must have told them that wood burning stoves were good for the environment. Wood's natural right? However before I finally give up and take a long loknely walk in my pyjama's into an oncoming tide this does at least show someone somewhere with political connections has heard a penny drop. Write to Mr. Khan , or post him a log etched in charcoal two words...."no compromise"
It's summer, but all windows must be closed in our house, even after showering 3 kids we can't open the bathroom window. Our vents, are all letting in this stinky smoke. Just dashing out to our car on the drive to grab something means returning into our house stinking of this acrid smoke.
I can't hang my washing out, my hair smells of smoke.
We love our home & street & have been so happy here. It's our forever home. But it on swift move, our new neighbours have changed everything for us?
Our house is much higher than theirs & their chimney is very very close to our house due to past extensions to the boundary lines.
Everything smells awful & we can't sit in our garden or have our conservatory /back doors open.
We live in a smoke free area, and this seems like such a backwards move for our environment. Tons of black smoke, that stinks.
What is stopping people from burning anything they want?
Our neighbour is a tradesman so I imagine he has access to plenty of things that burn, at my expense:(
So upset. Our life has changed!!
Why are we ignoring the pollution and damage it can cause to others - I am speaking from firsthand experience and I am shocked how the authority's and government are overlooking this just like they did with diesel. It has got worse to the point I am being exposed everyday to smoke coming into the house and it's getting out of control. Hopefully one day they will hurry up and catch on
Smoke free zone should mean smoke free zone, however they see smoke produced but do nothing. They say authorised fuel can be used such as blaze. However this smokeless fuel produces vast amounts of smoke. There should be product recall.
There is another way you can fight this is restrictive covenants. These are in the deeds to there property and separate from building regulations. There may be something in there about building or altering your property and has created LOSE OF AMMENITIES to someone else. As long as you can prove it, you have a case. However Restrictive covenants should stand for the past 50 year to stand any legal hold any deeds pre war are hard to uphold......
IM HOLDING GOVERNMENT PETITION IN JULY...... I NEED 10'000 signatures. I will need everyone................
our local council gas inspector, has told us that, this time next year,,
All log burners / multi fuel stoves... will not be allowed in any council owned property
And be told they have to be removed..
Leeds city council...
Good news for some / bad for others...
Just to add on the previous post I’m not blaming of defending anyone but the answer everyone Is looking for I cannot provide. Please read and understand Human Knowledge.
The control of fire by early humans was a turning point in the cultural aspect of human evolution. Fire provided a source of warmth, protection, and a method for cooking food. These cultural advancements allowed for human geographic dispersal, cultural innovations, and changes to diet and behaviour. Additionally, creating fire allowed the expansion of human activity to proceed into the dark and colder hours of the night.
Stone tools found at Wonderwerk Cave indicate the ancestor in question may have beenHomo erectus, a species whose existence has been documented as far back as 1.8 million years ago.
Establishing precisely when humans first acquired the ability to control fire.
Kind Regards,
S Ladha.
It is really very hard to assess this symptom and I'm afraid I cannot give you a straightforward answer.
Just for some ideas, symptoms like this can reflect a problem with the olfactory bulbs and the frontal lobe of the brain which is responsible for the perception of smell and odour. Some would liken the situation to an 'olfactory seizure' which is transient but recurring.
It is best that patient be evaluated by their primary physician or a neurologist since the assessment will also lie on a physical and neurologic evaluation. If the patient’s doctors would find reasonable doubt to suspect any problems with the brain, imaging studies such as MRI or CT scan may be requested.
Please don’t be offended.
Kind Regards,
S Ladha.
Just people trying to keep warm an you lot are trying to find ways in stopping them how f.. ked up are you
Just wait an see what your burning when the oil an gas is gone hater's
A planning officer told me a few yrs ago that if the chimney had been built today it would be against regulations as it is far too short but that as it has been in place for so many years it is too late to do anything about it on those grounds. The people who lived there previously did not use the chimney so there wasn't a problem. Even if on top of the house though it is still a nusiance and worry, as evidenced by the chinnmey on the house adjoining my friends house, all the smoke ocmes into his garden all washing smells of smoke and I used to be able to sit there doing bird counts for the BTO, all this is very difficult now because of the smoke so it is all falling by the wayside. Something must be done about the nuisance from chimneys on houses and the polluting smoke.
My windows haven't been opened for years because of the low chimney opposite me which every day sends smoke out intp the air, recently I had to ask another friend to come and help me with my side gate, he was so affected by the smoke coming straight up the path from the chimney opposite he refused to do anything and left as it was making his eyes sting and irritating his throat, also next door to me is a little cat with lung problems, she comes into my house stinking of smoke and coughing badly, my friend who refused to help with the gate because of the smoke (I don;t blame him) also has problems from his neighbours who are joined on to his house, they use a wood burner for their central heating and the smoke ocmes down into his garden, clean washing stinks of it, my hair and clothes always smell of smoke, - when I go into a cafe I feel I have to apologise for smelling of smoke , this happens everywhere now, not just in my local area, everywhere I go there is the smell of smoke in the air coming from somwhere.
I also worry about all the trees being cut down to provide the 'fuel' for these things, I know someone here was complaining about trees but really we need more trees to absorb some of this dreadful pollution, trees are our friends and if they were to all disappear, so would we! Please, we are merely part of the natural world, we cannot destroy the environment and still exist, we would all be gone too. Yet more and more front gardens being destroyed and gravel being put down instead, it is dreadful, so despressing. Too many people, too many people too close, and too many ignorant people, really ignorant and uncaring, and that is the main problem.
The local environment dept don't even want me contacting them anymore, take no notice of anything i say, don;t care about the smoke, don't care about the environment being destroyed, I directed the MP to this forum a couple of years ago, cannot find the early comments now, but it was all to no avail anyway, nothing changed, but maybe when we are all gone, it will , too late for us though, I wish something would change for
Chimney that sticks out of roof emitting foul smoke
Is this allowed?
I posted something about three hours ago and it has been blackballed by the look of it.
Basically I was saying that people are getting fed up, putting up with smoke.
This is a bad tension for the authorities to allow to fester in society.. People who feel frustrated and impotent about accepting smoke into their home may snap.
That's my opinion.
There seems no logic behind the thinking that burning wood and exhausting it from a low level chimney surrounded by taller houses and trees, they seem to think it romantic, a through back to older simpler times, TV shows sell the lie that it is good on a cold night to sit with a glass of wine in front of a log fire. If burning wood was not poison enough they no see that a drunk with access to fire is sensible.
My own predicament started nearly four years ago when my neighbour fitted a wood burner in a single story extension, low level chimney and all. The first lighting and we were flooded with smoke in our home. We had always had a good relationship with this neighbour and made him aware of the problem, his response was to say he would raise the chimney height to prevent this from happening. Good neighbour you would think, but no, he was given his certificate of compliance by building control and hey presto he was legal.
This should be easy enough we thought he has seen the problem, he watched on the day we complained that his smoke was just going downwards towards us, he would do something. He didn't. We said if he would not do anything we would be forced to go to environmental health. His comment was 'go to environmental and see if they can do anything', to say we were startled would be an understatement.
We went and like other stories here we may as well have discussed the problem with a passing cat.
We confronted building control who said it was compliant and met minimum standards, even though there is scope in building regulation part j to increase heights and distances if there was a problem when the fire is lit, HETAS say the same, no they were still in the right as the appliance was self certified. It was pointed out that the chimney height did not comply and was in fact too low. Still no it had been there fore some time so they could do nothing. The Ombudsman found them at fault, they could do nothing now as they were out of time for any action to be taken.They issued what amounts to a fraudulent compliance certificate and they can just ignore it whilst we are poisoned because of their actions.
Environmental has put up the mother of all battles to prove why they can do nothing and the Ombudsman says they are not at fault. Environmental has seen in person smoke dropping down to ground level and flowing horizontally to our windows, the comment made was it smells of clean wood smoke and is not excessive, the Ombudsman has seen this on video footage and they are of the mind that smoke should go down and into other homes. We had to fight for six moths to get them to agree that fumes (particulates by another name) should be include
wood burners should be banned in suburban areas. Clean air in your own home should be everyones
A right. Pollution is a choice breathing is not. I do not smoke by choice and should not be
forced to be a passive smoker in my own home because of someones selfish attitude.
Yes I have a 1.2 car, and so do all my wood burning smoke neighbours. I cannot smell their cars in my house, I smell their smoke in my house. Most people do not drive their cars for ten hours a day outside my door. They do this with their wood burning stoves. I agree that car exhaust is a problem, at the moment there are few alterntives in a modern age to driving cars that pollute somewhat, until technology improves cars enough for the mass market, then I will buy one. There are altnernatives to wood burning smoke, and coal burning smoke in suburban areas. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for being warm by using central heating instead of fossil fuel burning. You are silly.
But today is great news
The bbc news this morning says that surgeons have got together to demand action from airborne outdoor pollution. Their purview of concern is car pollution, wood burning stove emission, aeresols etc.
What this means, and hallejulah, is the the zeitgeist is on the turn, really, at last, truly.
This will be stopped by a combination of legislation due to pressure from the medical profession and honest reawakening of awareness among suburbantites not to burn wood burning stoves, coal smoke in residential areas.
I single out suburban areas Elle because the working class areas have mostly converted to gas central heating over the last twenty years. Being a working class lad myself I could not wait to get rid of the toil of cleaning out the fire, the mess, etc.
The middle class have just went bonkers on this, but this as I have said above is going to change.
Unfortunately, I must add that my neighbors burn dry seasoned wood in DEFRA approved stoves and still the air is filled with smoke. I can smell it inside my home as well. I know that if I am smelling smoke, then I am inhaling it. Because of the fine particles in woodsmoke emissions, my lungs cannot filter the poisonous matter in the smoke. Woodsmoke contains many of the same chemicals as cigarettes. But emissions from wood stoves are equal to many times more of these pollutants. I worry for the health of my young daughter. Children, the elderly and people with pre existing conditions are a greatest risk. But we are all at risk, as there are no safe levels of smoke. Our ancestors had black lungs and did not live long. Why are we going back to the dark ages instead of moving into the future with clean energy?
As I suffer another night of pollution coming in through my vents shelly's post projects an image I have to comfort myself that I "only" have to suffer wood burning smoke for ten minutes.
And then there they are for the rest of the night, scrupulously caring for us by holding vigil over their their wood burning smoker making sure it does not....er ...smoke. and er...only flames a bit.
Give us a break!
See what we are up against!
Can nothing be done?
No one should be allowed to pollute the air we breathe in this way. You wouldn't put up with cigarette smoke so why do we have to put up with wood burning smoke.
Garden fires should also be banned outright as there is no excuse for burning your rubbish. Don't be ignorant, take it to the dump like everyone else. Wood burners should be tackled urgently.
My neighbour is also smoking us out with their newly installed wood burner. We have done 3 months of logs for the council Environmental dept last winter. Then summer comes and it all stops. Now in recent weeks we are back to being smoked out. It just beggars belief that one council was considering banning cigarette smoke on the beach but no one is tackling this new wood burner stove pollution. Is it because our MPs have them ??? Ban them and ban them quickly before we all die from the effects.
I'm hoping that Scotland, Britain can lead the way at the World Leaders Conference for Environmental Health in Paris at the end of November. C'mon Scotland/Britain you did it with cigarettes- we have a reputation to protect in health and safety and caring for our citizens- life is short, lets make it as healthy and stress free as we can..
Until then we wont stop being vocal, its what we do.
Anyone affected must call their local EHD- power in numbers!
I live in terraced housing in a densely populated city and quite frankly, if smoke from wood burners was my only nuisance I would be happy.
I go to bed at 11pm, I am woken up at 2am by a guy (who I assume is going to work?!) on a motorbike. He rev's it for 5 mins before leaving.
IF I am lucky enough to fall back asleep, I am awoken at 4/5am by the 'trade' workers leaving in their vans. They switch their engines on whilst noisily loading up their tools etc.
Again, if I am lucky enough to sleep again, I get my third 'wake up alarm' at around 7.30am which is parents screaming and swearing at their screechy, whining, disobedient brats right below my bedroom window.
I then get out of my bed miserable, exhausted and frustrated, ready to start another day of work.
I have contacted Portsmouth Council on various occasions regarding the noise and essentially get told "well you live in a city, so deal with it".
Noise and trees is annoying. I moved to a detached house because of neighbours having a dreaded x-box that played motor rallying vroom vroom 24/7. I have a neighbour with a huge tree they refuse to cut down so my washing remains in shade and does not dry as quickly as it should. In the fomer I could do something by moving and upgrading my house, in the latter, I just put up with it, as believe it or not I don't like complaining.
Smoke though has a direct impact on health, and sanity. It just should not be.
Since the councils refuse to measure the air quality in my Troon ayrshire, middle class, suburban street, I have thought about asking some research university or some body that has the technical means to measure the godawful choking stink in my street. The pollution must be worse than many places in china. I am not joking about this. 13 coal burning chimneys surround me, plus five wood burning stoves. It is impossible to go out at night into the garden, or open windows after having a shower, or cooking smells within our kitchen. Even if I stuff the vents, have my IQ air purifiers on full go, the unmistakable sour burnt sulphur hot metal chimney smell still hangs around my face all night. My life is diminished by other people's choices. I just sit and get angrier and angrier, every single effing night. I feel that I have been given no protection, no choice, except just to sit and take it, and live out my life of quiet desperation. I don't want to say openly what I want to do to the people who are doing this to me. Except that these feelings cannot be healthy for civic cohesion. Please god can someone rescue us from this.
4.7 Ventilation is required for one or more of the following purposes:
a. provision of outside air for breathing;
b. dilution and removal of airborne pollutants, including odours;
c. control of excess humidity (arising from water vapour in the indoor air);
d. provision of air for fuel-burning appliances (which is covered under Part J of the Building Regulations)." During the renovation of our period home we had to abide by the building regulations and install good means of ventilation in all these key areas. As our property is a terraced Town House on the High Street we took into consideration the proximity of neighbours and traders as well as the vulnerability of the property itself (timber framed) and decided that it would be unsociable and dangerous to put back into working order the myriad of fireplaces we had inherited. If we had purchased a property in the country which was detached and had its own source of fuel (woodland or extensive grounds) our decision would have been different. In our view, in these modern times where we are facing an uncertain and critical future caused by the effects of pollution that has accelerated climate change and global warming, the use of a wood burning stoves, when cleaner and regulated means of fuel are available is simply wilful selfishness. Not only are they directly contributing to global pollution by means of wood smoke emissions, but also indirectly with vehicle emissions when wood/coal/logs etc. need to be picked up or delivered. Councils and Government need to enforce on the Domestic consumer the same regulations that they apply to industrial and commercial businesses with regard to emissions. Currently this is an unregulated area or half heartedly regulated by under resourced Councils throughout the Country. So yes, we have a period listed house which has taken us almost 15years without holidays to painstakingly restore. The end result is a beautiful time capsule for future generations which has now become a prison because we can't go out in our courtyard, or open windows, or unblock vents due to two small cottages that sit on the boundary of our courtyard. Whether it is Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn they will light a fire in their chimneys with no regard to anybody
the only systems that help is the IQ Air home plus. It is an air purifier, as you can read in previous posts, it has kept me sane. they cost nearly £900 each and I have two of them. My partner is thinking of getting another one just to cope with what comes through our vents.
The purifiers screen out micrograms up to 0.03 which is the only system that clear down to those tiny amounts. wood burning smoke are about 0.03 micrograms, small enough to penetrate brick. so stuffing the vents only delays the onslaught, and delays the clearing of the vents when the chimneys go off in the wee hours. This means you are trapped in the house with smoke that came into your house hours earlier, since it can't get out, if you have stuffed your vents.
The purfiers hold the smoke at bay in a kind of holding action when the chimneys are at their worst but make no mistake, they can't clear it ALL immediately. What the purifiers do is drastically get rid of the toxic particles very very quickly once the chimney smoke starts to wane.
So, the purifiers, in my opinion is the only way to go to stay sane until you can move. This is a dickensian hell we are in, and it appears one is not a cool person, quite behind the times old chap, if you object to you are yours, being poisoned.
I had a look for the online petition I signed last year, but cannot find it now.
general point to fellow 'afflictees' of this disgrace:
It is also not just an issue of wood smoke, there are 15 suburban houses in my immediate vicinity . 11 of them are burning coal fires. Of these eleven. Two also are burning wood burning stoves. One of these two has three wood burning stoves and a huge chimney, twice the volume of a normal coal chimney. The other guy with the wood burning stove also has a coal fire chimney and .....has put a wood burning stove in his bloody garden hut. I'm about round the twist with it.
I notice that today when the weather is nice and warm, the offenders next to my freind have all their washing out. Because of my circumstances I have to use his washing line to hang washing out, and I have to wash everything by hand as no washing machine, it means that really I would have to only do my washing the same time as them, because when they have their washing out they make sure there is no smoke.
It is being dictated to in a way by these people. As in if I want to be able to put washing out and not have it stinking of smoke, then I would have to always make sure I do it when they do theirs, and as they keep very different hours, (getting up at 4.30 in the morning and thinking that 6am is the middle of the afternoon and they can make as much noise as they want) then I would also have to keep the same hours!
I stay at my friend's house Sunday and Monday and have had two very disturbed mornings from their noise, their basset hound booming at all hours, (not that I blame the dog, I don't think they ever take it out anymore so I can understand it probably getting bored, and therefore barking) doors banging, the woman's loud penetrating voice, the smells of cannabis coming through the walls from one of her sons, they are real problem neighbours but act as though they are lords of all.
The people adjoing my friend's house are also extremely noisy, they get up very early in the morning, (4.30 am) have a basset hound that barks at all hours with a deep booming bark, the woman of the house has an extremely loud penetrating voice, often swearing and shouting using filthy languge and disrupting any hope of peace.
No matter how many times I have contacted the local EH dept about any of these people, nothing is ever done, they send out a preliminary letter and some log sheets to me, which I duly fill in and send back, only to be told there is nothing they can do and I can bring a civil case myself if I choose to, which I cannot afford to do. I cannot move as my circumstances don't permit and if I did, there are more and more people now burning wood or coal and on one conversation with the local EH dept, the woman I spoke to said she 'agreed' with wood burning stoves as they were an 'affordable' form of heating for people who could not afford much. She also said she liked the smell and liked to see the smoke coming from chinmeys. I myself used to like the smell , i like the smell of certain bonfires, i like to see the smoke gently rising in the autumn air, it is evocative of a quiet autumn from a nicer time it seems, but unfortunately my health does not like it, I wish it did, i wish it didn't affect me, i don't want to be affected by it, but i am.
The people who say it is their right to make smoke and that anyone who objects is interfering with their human rights, well what about the rights of people whose health is being affected? What about them? They are often told to move, !!! Surely this can't go on?
On Friday I walked through the local High Street, lower half had strong stinking smoke smell hanging in the air, I walked to the beach and instead of smelling sea air, all I could smell was the strong smell of smoke clinging to my hair and clothes, I actually wondered if the air over the sea smelled of smoke, but of course it wasn't that. I was embarrassed having to go into shops and onto the bus later, people must have thought either I was a very strong smoker or had been burning a stinking bonfire with thick smoke.
That was on Friday. Today I walked home from my freind's house, his neighbours adjoining have stated their wood burning early this year . I was coughing and trying to clear my chest all the way home. I've been wondeing why my chest trouble have flared up again recently, silly me for not realising it is obviously because of the smoke in the air. Even when you can't see it, you can smell it, and even when it is not that noticeable it is still there getting inro your lungs and affecting susceptable people .
I am dreading the man opposite me starting his wood burner up, with the very low chimney on the side of his house that sends smoke straight across into my bedroom , even though the window is tightly sealed.
The worst smoke polluters in my whole town, are the 1 in the High Street area, which admittedly doesn't affect me 'that' much, I don't go into the town every day, but the other 2 are 1 right opposite my house and the other 1 joined onto my friend's house where I have to spend time every day, so I cannot escape from it, it wouldnt matter if my health was unaffected by it, but it isn't.
I'm not doing anything to adversely affect their health, but they are affecting mine, also with the noise from these people, if it's not one thing it's another. The man opposite me often making a lot of noise from his metal shed, or chopping wood or using a chainsaw early in the morning, he is also polluting the area with a fertilizer smell as he now has greenhouses right opposite me, I only know this from going across and having a look recently as wondered where the garden centre type smell was coming from, you can't see it from the street as he has high boundary, it is a residential area not countryside. The people adjoing my friend's house are also extremely noisy, they get up very early in the morning, (4.30 am) have a basset hound that barks at all hours with a deep booming bark, the woman of the house has an extremely loud penetrating voice, often swearing and shouting using filthy languge and disrupting any hope of peace.
No matter how many times I have contacted the local EH dept about any of these people, nothing is ever done, they send out a preliminary letter and some log sheets to me, which I
In addition to my initial feelings on this topic, the whole issue of ignoring the welfare and feelings of our fellows goes much further. Just think about all the other things we do which impact on other people's lives in a negative way. I just wonder how many people who drive smoky diesel cars actually consider for one second the effect their toxic emissions have on others - not many I'd guess !. Even if they knew, most wouldn't care. I despair with the thoughtlessness of most humans. I think the 5 % rule applies - Only 5% of humans will display either very good or very bad traits - it's the 'Bell Curve' distribution. I This is why most people you meet will not be keenly aware of their own thoughtlessness and it seems that we few have to just put up with it.. Ignorance comes naturally to so many!
jesterr6216, take heed of my sentiments. (and all others who are unable to appreciate the lives of other people). Be kind, sensitive and thoughtful and you'll never need to worry about your neighbour having to take you to court)
has anyone found any evidence anywhere of authorities getting serious about banning smoke producing domestic heating in residential areas. Has such a thing got off the ground yet. Anywhere?
I am dreading the winter. I have two IQ Air (£900 each) air purifiers and while they help they can't deal with the huge amounts of smoke that come through my vents, smell my bedclothes, and prevent us from opening our windows or sitting in our back door, or working in our garage.
The councils are useless, the local m.p, passes the buck back to the council to investigage.
So does any governmental or international agency exist that actually acknowledges we are not just "sqeaky gates" and that we have genuinely diminished life quality due to smoke. If so, what is currently going on to address it by governmental, international, local authorities?
If the neighbour has a growing family it can increase the risk of genetic damage and reduced IQ and behavioural problems when children start school. For details, see woodsmoke.3sc.net/health
Would you want your neighbour to suffer any of these problems? The decent thing would be to follow the advice of the UN Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization and switch to non-polluting heating. As well as being healthier and causing less global warming, efficient heat pumps that can deliver 5 or 6 times as much heat to your home as the electric power they use will cost less to run than buying firewood for your stove.
You don't happen to live in Troon do you. Because the chimneyites have turned the beautiful sea air down here into a living smoggy hell. Chimneyites are likely to be suburban types that will have manicured lawns, no previous criminal history, at heart quite reasonable, broadly compassionate people. However, all they look to is their house as their castle to do whatever the hell they like, because they have risent to become semi-successful and they want to project this image. At the moment the latest thing is this damn blasted dangerous filthy output that to fill up the sky for miles around as a smokey announcement that they have arrived.
They will also be smug about it, as if, there is something wrong with you for wanting to sit in your garden without their smoke filling the air. They are the ones with the finger on the pulse, they are in the moment, the zeitgeist is with them.
You on the other hand are dismissed as neurotic, highly strung, and so on.
I don't want any part of what they want to do with their lives, and that includes not having their habits come through my vents night after night, smelling out my duvets, driving me from my garden.
Your smoke is appalling, however techinically gifted it is, you don't think of yourself as appalling, but what you are doing is appalling.
Until that is our elderly neighbour moved in above us and basically set environmental health onto us. She is complaining that we are generating blue smoke and it is pouring into her apartment through her windows, stopping her from living there. Yes she is on the first floor (we are ground floor) but her windows are well beyond the distance set out for HETAS regulations. EH came out, checked the stove, confirmed it was fully legally fitted, and closed the complaint off. She then complained further to EH, the boss there re-opened the complaint, more looking at the nuisance side (not disputing it was correctly and legally fitted), and after a period of time, mainly of me having to chase the EH officers up to come out to check when it was on (because we don't burn it all the time) they again closed the complaint off because aside from a wee bit of smoke when we first light it, there is nothing but a heat haze when it is properly going. They stated there was a very slight smell of wood smoke in the air around the whole building , but nothing unacceptable. We have multiple neighbours around us who also have wood burners.
So, summer comes, fire is lying quiet, and we get a solicitors letter through the door stating she is taking us to the magistrates court for personal nuisance. Can you imagine how happy we are. Now folks, reviewing this website I can see there are slightly more in the anti-woodburner camp than fellow pro-burners like myself, and I can utterly sympathise with people with neighbours who do not follow the rules and burn all sorts of horrible things, but come on. It comes down to me having my human rights as much as her. I am a fully law abiding citizen, and want to be a good neighbour, but she is a highly strung elderly individual who thinks that if she can play the persecuted wee old lady card loud enough she will win. Her solicitor states they will pursue Personal Nuisance under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. I really do not want to have to start lining solicitors pockets with my hard earned cash to fight this case, but I am not going to just roll over. I have spoke with the fitters and they state it would be unsafe to lengthen the flue any higher, and that the flue is the co
it's as follows:
Dear Friend of Families for Clean Air,
This Friday, May 8th, is the final day to submit public comments on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s proposed amendments to the wood burning devices rule. The proposed amendments can be read here.
It’s important that the air district hears from people who are concerned about the hazards of wood smoke pollution—they will certainly be hearing from those who aren’t. If you haven’t already sent in your comments, we urge you to do so before the deadline.
Your comments don’t have to be complicated, and they can simply be emailed to the air district at: public@baaqmd.gov
In your comments, we encourage you to to mention the following points:
You feel that wood smoke pollution is a significant issue for public health and the environment.
You are in favor of more stringent regulations to reduce pollution from wood burning devices.
You urge the air district to step up it’s enforcement of all wood smoke regulations, especially in regards to those who are burning improperly or burning on days when wood burning is prohibited.
You feel there needs to be additional measures to protect people from localized pollution “hotspots” on days when there is no wood burning restriction in place. Local concentrations of particle pollution can be 100 times higher for people living near wood burners than what is measured at the nearest monitoring station.
You believe that there should be no incentives offered to encourage people to purchase new wood-burning devices, even if they are EPA-certified.
Thanks for taking the time to stand up for healthy air and a better environment,
Susan Goldsborough
Executive Director
I have two old dressing gowns that I throw over the bed and it at least covers the bed half way down.
It's incredible. I can't put washing out either when the wind is blowing against me, usually from the south west.
I have become an addict of bbc weather that shows wind direction. It is the first thing I look at in the morning. This determines when I eat. Why. Because if I cook a meal after 4.30 p.m. in the afternoon, I can forget about opening my window to let the cooking smells out. (My kitchen adjoins my lounge - never make that mistake again)
Same goes for showering to let the steam out, same goes for ...ahem...offshed from ablutions, say no more.
It is an absolute disaster what is happening. We are beleagured and the reason the government agencies won't do anything is something to do with worries over grid capacity.
The more people that burn fossil and wood fuel than less draw on the grid. I'm sure something like this is at the back of the inaction over the mass stupidity of pouring smoke into peoples lives.
I say this because, my god, there has to be a reason this torture is allowed.
er.......Hasn't there?
Those of us affected should not have to suffer like this. It is not us being killjoys, it is simply that our health is being affected, evey time i lay down my chest and throat wheezes and only since the smoke is so prevelant, I never used to get this problem every year in the colder months until these chimneys started smoking.
I used to always vote for the Green Party but now I don't know who to vote for, from what I have heard recently the Greens seem more concerned with getting even more houses built and no mention of the smoke. At least 'some' new houses have been built without chimneys but I doubt this will happen always. {As if there will ever be a time when there is 'enough' houses anyway! I know this is a different issue, but there will never be 'enough' houses because there is always going to be more people}. Anyhow I am going to contact the environmental dept again re the house opposite. For all the good it does. I can't actually see any smoke coming out but the air above the chimney is shimmering so I suppose that is where the smell is coming from and the particles are so small they can get into my bedroom even through the sealed window.
........"has to change"
Yes it does, but how.
It is all I can do to keep my temper under control. If I do lose it with the neighbours (all 13 of them around me with either coal chimneys or wood burning stoves - two neighbours have both!) I will be the bad one. It will also alert them to the fact that they are bothering me and may make them retribute me for daring to approach them about their wood burning smoke issue and stoke their chimneys even more voluminously. Even if they are not that perverse, it will gnaw at them that they could be, and increase my sense of frustration and impotence even more. This cannnot be good for civic cohesion.
I laugh when I watch the green party and other politicians talk about improving air quality through tinkering with petrol emissions ,decommissioning coal fire power stations ,and so on, but have a wilful blindspot on people's right to pollute from their own households.
What about my household!
I looked into getting a machine that measures air quality, they cost about £250. I asked my council to measure the street as I have 13 chimeys within 80 metres of my house, plus four wood stove.
It is absolutely appaling. It comes through my vents in the house and even blocking the vents only delays the onset of fumes by about an hour.
The council refused to measure the air quality in the street. My MP sees it as a council matter, the council say that "burning wood smoke and coal is a normal facet of modern domestic living".
I look out my window at night and when all the chimneys are on it looks like commanches on the hill you used to see in old western 7th cavalry movies.
It's a stupendous faustian folly.
The extra smell you smell is a mixture of sulphur and other by products, and a hot metal smell that is vaguely reminiscent of rancid seaweed.
I would move but they are popping up all over the place. I am not by nature an aggessive chap but I could, somedays, run out the house and roar at them, as they have their logs dropped off by the truckload.
Where are all those greenies that campaigned to end tobacco smoking in public now when we need them.
Protesting against wood burning stoves is deemed unhip, until it is hip, then it looks like nothing will be done to change people's perception of their over elevated sense of entitlement to inflict their smoke into our lives.
The authorities don't want to know as the problem is not universal. Not yet. It is only our bad luck we have people who don't give a damn living in our street. When it eventually becomes a problem and childhood asthma levels creep up and people with copd start dying early then it will end up a huge surprise to the media, and the chattering classes will start making it socially unacceptable to pollute our streets. The movement to abolish this practice will gather momentum much in the way that cigarette smoking became socially unacceptable. namely bit by bit, but it will happen. The fact you may have been given emphysema by then doesn't seem to matter a jot to anyone in authority at the moment.
However some practical things you can do.
you will have to do what i have had to do.
seal up windows where you can.
Invest in an IQ health pro plus air purifier, swiss made. They cost £800 each but they do actually work. Cheaper ones are no good as they only eliminate harmful particles up to 0.3 in size, but the wood smoke micrograms are 0.03 in size and that is what the IQ air hoovers out of the air. The IQ air is the only one to do so. These machines are used in hospitals.
And no, I don't have any interest in this company whatsoever, and am only advertising this machine as it worked for me after much research and taking the plunge and buying one. Then another. This will do me till I can afford to move away . But where to? These wood burners are popping up all over the place.
Hey ho - just get yourself a purifier if you can't afford to move just yet.--------
I have bought two, one to put into my bedroom at night before i go into the room, and leave it on on low throughout the night.
One to guard "sentry" at the kitchen door as the chimneys all go on very early in the morning as people use this to heat their water before they go to work.
nightmare.
eg - in the whole of Strathclyde area there is one tiny smoke control area - a tiny part of the tiny village of Dundonald while the whole of a town the size of Troon is left at the mercy of neighbours who build two wood burning stoves per household right next door to you.
The local council sent me an email "Wood burning smoke and chimney smoke is a normal part of domestic living" !!!!!
Why aren't the Greens and the Scottish Government not swinging round and coming down on Councils to end this torture like a ton of briquettes.
Yes you can burn wood and you will find no one will help you, not even the Environmental health agency. I have fitted a number of these log burners and gas boilers and it amazes me that I have to analyze the emissions and dilute if necessary the products out of a gas boiler using an expensive Gas Flue Analyser to keep the air as clean as possible. Yet the products burned on log burners is nil and void of any monitoring. The irony of this is the boiler is lean burning and the log burner isn't. So why bother with clean boilers?
This grudge only came to light when my Neighbour installed one, boy they are pig ignorant and burn just about anything. Now to cut a long story short, I went through the right channels, asking them to be a little more considerate, they wouldn't. So it was time for the useless Environmental Health agency to help us. We did as they asked monitored and recorded smoke entering my house through the bathroom window and the front door. The neighbours would start it up with damp wood, after 25 minutes it would be up to a hot temperature, by this time the EHA would turn up and have a stiff and say that doesn't smell much.....every time over 10 visits. I even sent videos and got a witness. They washed there hands of it. I was very angry and got the ombudsmen involved but they were on the same council pay roll. At the moment I am considering private legal action against the neighbours.....
So you see what goes around comes around..................I am an acute Asthmatic. 3 years ago it nearly killed me so I have a Health problem!
Oh one more thing I have even written to our local MP 4 times and got one email back, they are looking in to it. I wouldn't hold my breath! I'll have to put up and shut up I guess!
Environmental Health Dept is there for anybody with concerns about factors affecting their health and wellbeing
Really how much smoke can be blowing in the direction that it causes her sore eyes etc.
I suggest she goes and buys herself a log cabin on its own somewhere remote. That way she can have nothing to bother her.
The smell of woodsmoke is lovely as I can attest, it's somewhat better than the smell of the S1 bus which stopped outside my house in the East End where I grew up.
I suggest she gets a grip of herself and worry about something other than what is a pathetic gripe.
God Mrs, your seriously sad
If you treat people how you wish to be treated then you would not be in that position and be helping your neighbour by sorting the problem. End of the day there should be no smoke.
I am not a selfish neighbour and it is not a cheap and nasty low level log cabin. It cost about £9000. What is a 'low level' log cabin anyway? Can you get high rise ones? The chimney is actually higher than the apex of the roof of the house over the fence. Several neighbours did not object despite your rallying attempts. I went to see them. The nonsense about the retaining wall is irrelevant as noted by the planning officer. They had concerns about smoke which is fair enough but since installation it has been lit about 7 times to date. For your information one of them said they thought you were a trouble maker and another said you were just a weirdo. I bought some new dried logs just for your benefit. Also it maybe worth noting that we have had a period of northerly wind that is unusual for this country which blew it in your direction. Yes we did have a lovely sunny day and it was about 1 Celsius. I don't believe you wanted to open your window. I don't need lessons on being antisocial from somebody who didn't speak to their disabled neighbour for 10 years and has blanked and refused to speak to the new ones for no reason. I could heat the shed (which incidentally people who have seen it think is lovely) with fossil fuel but I wanted to do it with renewables. You live in a village and it's winter. The smell of woodsmoke and coal is everywhere here. Most people like the smell of woodsmoke. There is hardly any smoke when it is hot and burning and it disperses by the time it reaches your house. The planning officer took the opposite view on every one of your ridiculous objections to the shed. Believe me. I am not the problem neighbour in this dispute!
It just constantly pumping out smoke that is causing my eyes to hurt. The wind blows the smoke directly at my house.
I've had to shut all of my window air vents, I can't have a window open today, its lovely and sunny.
These things need to be banned! I'm so upset I just want to move. People have absolutely no consideration for others around and only think of themselves.
How on earth does planning allow one to be put in such close proximity to neighbours I don't know.
i suspect some of these stoves are not installed correctly and the flue's are not working well ,so all the replies that have talked about moaners want to get a grip of themselves and realise we all have to live together help each other have as a peaceful and good healthy environment as possible. so those making smoke should maybe look inwards a little and tall should try to find a way of solving the issue and not being so defensive and aggressive
please work together!!
sore throats n bleeding noses...... pathetic!
Phil Wood, Stove Industry Alliance (SIA) Chairman, comments: “The SIA formed in 2008 with objectives in support of government initiatives to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and to lower CO2 emissions. Up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass without damaging global food production, and that’s a hugely exciting prospect for the future.
“Though many are voicing concerns over the large-scale operation these future biomass power stations will involve, we’re eager to remind homeowners that on a domestic-scale, burning wood is an incredibly environmentally-friendly option. If owners use their wood burning stove correctly, and source their wood responsibly, they can rest assured that they’re maximising the green credentials of their home.”
Whilst the harvesting, transporting and processing of wood to create fuel for biomass power stations could have a significant impact on CO2 emissions, the use of logs in residential stoves does not rely on the same carbon-intensive production chain.
In a survey conducted by the SIA, wood burning stove retailers reported that at least 36% of homeowners supply at least half of their wood themselves. With the majority of the remaining wood sourced from a local garage or wood retailer within 5 miles of an owner’s home, or delivered from a logs/solid fuel merchant within a delivery catchment area of approx. 50 miles; the carbon footprint of logs is significantly lower than the use of biomass in industry.
Biomass electricity carries an entirely different set of environmental considerations to using wood in residential wood burning stoves – the latter offering a truly environmentally friendly, sustainable means of heating the home. I could sit in my garden burning old pallets every day of the week and there's not a thing you can do about it. but i wouldnt they often soaked in cyanide to prevent them rotting, Get a life stop moaning move find a high bridge do us all a favour.
We live in a smoke-control area in a city so you would think we would have grounds for a legitimate complaint but we have contacted the environmental services department and they have been no help at all as they say that as the neighbours are using the correct appliance for burning their seasoned wood there is nothing that can be done about it.
We have the same symptoms as everyone else - sore, prickly eyes, sore throats and sinus problems. Our health - which was not great to start with - is suffering and our lives are miserable. We can't hang out washing or open our windows any more.
The neighbours are retired and very rarely leave their house which means they have the time to tend their stove from 8am to 10pm every single day. There seems no respite for us. No-one wants to help us with this problem so we are in the process of getting ready to sell our house and move elsewhere. It really does seem incredible that we don't have a basic right to breathe clean air in our own home.
Let's wait and see if it happens. Will keep you posted
People see their wood burner as a god given right to burn anything they like including household rubbish. The guy on the left of me chops up anything combustible including painted windows, chipboard, MDF, treated farm fencing and creosoted posts. The stink that fills the garden and my house is unbelievable. On the other side I have someone who burns fresh wood from his field plus treated post off-cuts that generates masses of stinking smoke that hangs in the air. Add to that all the junk they burn to get the thing started.
On top of that we have all the local farmers burning their plastic silage wrap and fertiliser sacks. I'm convinced the countryside is far more dangerously polluted than urban areas. No smoke free zones for us. I never seem to be far from the smell of burning plastic and other nasties. Why the government lets companies make plastic products for farmers that have no means of recycling is beyond me.
I've tried approaching neighbours tactfully, even offering to buy a winters supply of seasoned logs for them but they are hostile in return. The big wood burner push was a huge mistake. My area is far more polluted than before and the stuff that is being burned will inevitably produce a cancer burden down the line. I really fear for my kids.
I find it amazing how many people are suffering from the same issue.Wood burning stoves are real problem,they are worse now that these things are in fashion at the moment.I fully support solar and wind power.Wood burning stoves are anything but eco friendly and burning coal is an old fashioned practice best left in the 20th century.I wish our village was in a smoke free zone,but its not so its tough luck I guess.At one point we had houses at 3 sides of us all burning coal or wood,so what ever the wind direction we got smoke and smell,but the household behind have now moved out,so the coal fire has stopped(for the time being.I wonder if they got sick of the cleaning bills being issued to them by their nextdoor for cleaning the black from the white guttering and facia boards?)
I can't believe people can be so selfish.
I moved from my last home town due to noise.We lived in a terrace happily for a few years,but the house next to us was rented,and it got new tenants in.A young couple,who were both unemployed(ive been unemployed too so no snobbery there)and felt it was necessary to go out at 8.00pm and then come back in again at 2.00am and have LOUD music on until we went to work the next morning,not ocasionally,but every night.In order to keep the peace I only ever complained once and that was a night when the neighbour from the other other side of us went round at 12.00 am to complain that the music was so loud here could feel it two doors down! We put the house up for sale and was lucky enough to get a sale after the 3rd viewing.We moved after 8 weeks from start to finish.In this period the police had to force the door down and take the girl next door to the hospital after an overdose(a Sunday night/Monday morning).Once we were moved,I reported the whole matter to the letting agency of informed the owners of the house next door.I had to go back to my other neighbours house a few weeks later as they had looked after some boxes for me,and was told that the problem neighbours had been evicted by the way of the owner pinning the young lad down on the floor outside the house with his foot on the lads throat informing him that it would best if he never entered that house again.The couple's belonging were thrown into the street and that was that.
So we had to move,I am not prepared to move again due to other's selfishness.There is only one good thing,My problem neighbour looks a good 20 years older than me,so when I eventually retire(and start to enjoy my garden again)the B*****d next door but one will be dead with a bit of luck!!
I empathise with all you poor people on this site.And I hope you get your life back to normal some time soon.
At weekends he spends his time with his friends in his mini 'pub' which is a 8ft by 6ft wooden garden shed. He's always had some kind of heating device in there with a long fat flue coming out of the side. His house is laid well back, ours is more forward. His shed is on the other side of the dividing wooden fence adjacent to our shed. Last weekend, in the dark, he moved the flue so that it is directly outside our kitchen window. Our bathroom is directly above the kitchen - the flue is beneath it. With the bright lights he has on, which, incidently, shines very brightly into our house and only goes off when he's finished anything between 11pm and 1am, we could smell heavy smoke. Because of the lighting, we could clearly see heavy dark smoke coming from the flue and stinking to high heaven! The smoke is even coming through the vents! So not just toxic, noxious fumes but a complete obstruction of our entire view because of where the flue is now situated. No wonder he fixed it up in the night. The woodburner in the shed is risky with all that booze in there. Also our shed houses our petrol lawnmower and white spirit and other decorating imflammables. If the whole thing goes up, we all cop it. Speaking to him will do no good as he feels he is untouchable in this neighbourhood. Surely, this cannot be allowed?
but also because we are surrounded by houses we feel there are more of the same
causing pollution but because there are fumes but no smoke we cannot pinpoint where
our nightmare is coming from.We have soar throats,coughs and tight chests.WE really feel that our health is being ruined.WE hope that someone will start an internet petition that people can sign,as local councils cannot do much when the law allows them.
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It will have a flue going straight up through stainless steel plates fitted between to joists going straight up from living room through two floors and through the roof.
One of my neighbours insists on burning everything (not just garden waste, but household waste too) in a backyard incinerator.
At least some of the fumes are pretty noxious and having to reach for a blue inhaler after getting a lungful isn't exactly confidence inspiring about possible toxicity.
I hope at the next election that someone like UKIP run on a policy of clean air. They would get a large number of votes.
We have had a neighbour was has complained about our wood burner smoke in the winter and lives in a smokey environment himself.
Debbie
My god, will the government do nothing about this. The council won't. I have an email from Troon town council environmental department telling me that "solid fuels are part of normal domestic living".
It's like it's a craze among troon suburbanites to produce even more smoke than their neighbours. The air quality in winter is appalling, and troon town council have refused to come out and measure the air quality. They sent a couple of blokes round from the council, one ponging of after shave, to sniff the air and get back in their car and declare that they could not smell it inside my house.
This would be because by the time they got to my house, sod's law, the wind had changed, and two of the neighbours had left their house, put their fire out, and went to the shops.
Why can't they just monitor the quality of air in the street over a period of time in the winter. Then base their human resources and technical gizmos, which is paid by us by the way, to come to a coherent conclusion as to the extent of the problem.
Two fat guys coming to the house to sniff the air doesn't do it.
We are in the south east and it really is not cold here. I just opened my kitchen window to let some fresh air in and then smelt this damn thing and immediately shut it.
It is only about 10 ft or so from our kitchen doors and it is in his conservatory so it is low down. I am absolutely sick to death of this now. I should be able to open my doors and windows in the middle of June for goodness sake. Its affecting my quality of life.....not only that I have been out one August a few years ago to come home and find black bits on my kitchen worktop, surely this is not acceptable !!!
Sick to death of those damn stinking things....surely there is some sort of law regarding how close and how high these things should be. Only a matter of time before I crack I'm afraid.
No consideration for others I'm afraid....just remembered,whilst its still on now she has the damn skylight window open also...she cannot be that cold to have that open!!!!!!
point 1, the only smoke emitted from a wood burner should be in the first 30 min of start uo.
point 2, stoves are very eco friendly when operated correctly I.e all the toxic smoke should be conbusted in the stove before it gets anywhere near the flue exit when a stove is running at the correct temp nothing will be seen exiting the flue.
Point 3, if smoke is billowing from the flue the stove is not hot enough or the fuel is of poor quality.
Point 4, only wood gasses should be emmited from a hot burning fire.
point 5, only seasoned wood wirh a moisture content of 20% or less should be used in a stove.
I have fitted many stoves over the years and when a stove is being operated correctly there should be nothing seen coming out the flue the general rule is if there is smke coming out tge flue you are not burning hot enough. I have real sympathy for you folks being smoked.out by people who have stoves installed and dont take the time to learn about running a stove they just think its a matter of throwing wood in a stove its more complicated than that you need to monitor the stove find out your optimum operating temp source proper logs not the soaking wet ones most suppliers sell. As I said if there is smoke coming from the flue THE STOVE IS NOT BEING RUN HOT ENOUGH.
the smell from i can put up with its the neighbour it seems to have taken over his life since the stove was installed all he does is chop wood morning ,noon and night and also with a chainsaw in his garden he now seems to be in a routine of chopping the wood in his house on the fireplace which echoes up the tube liner he also scrapes the fire out at all times of the day and night ie 4.00 am
we have now started knocking on the wall but to no affect
to be quite honest i think there is something wrong with him
I can not go round as i will put the axe he uses in his head
some people need to get a life the council dont seem interested any one any ideas of the correct way to go about letting him no we are not happy with the situation
care! Sod's law when we asked the environmental health officer to come out to see our problem the woodburner was not on! Not holding out much hope, would be interested in hearing from anyone if they have tried an injunction through the courts.
I will be spending money on monitoring to gain scientific evidence. In the meantime I am wearing face masks 3m respirator type, they are the basic half mask so they don't protect your eyes and are not infallable. Keep an accurate log and update the Environmental officer weekly. The problem for us like for others I guess is that the stuff hangs around after the initial smell which can be a number of times per day and you seem to get used to it until you go out and then come back and the effects materialise later on with soar throat sinuses throat and glands, coughing, phlemb, chest burning and more. Continued exposure even to what may seem small amounts just seem to top up the affect. In the interim you can buy HEPA free standing room filter units from somewhere like Argos. I will update when I have something solid, could take some time. Any qualified comments would be welcome.
There are an awful lot of complaints but no solutions yet.
Perhaps someone has brought a civil action which they could share.
70% of outside smoke gets into my house, (according to scientific articles I’ve read).
this causes injury to people who have the misfortune to live next to people who burn wood or coal.
My experience so far suggests to me, that what is needed is to disabuse people of the “folksy” glamour attributed to the use of wood burning and coal burning in urban areas. Also to counter the argument that wood burning is a cheap alternative. It may be for them but I am having to buy a quality air purificiaiton unit to drive the wood smoke from my house. I am going to sue my local council for the recovery of this cost.
My garden is uninhabitable when these stoves are lit. Inside my house, peaking particularly around 8'oclock at night, there arrives the unmistakable sour-sweet odour of my neighbour’s wood burning stove molecules finally achieving a big enough mass for my nose to detect it. Of course, before I can detect this nasally, these molecules have been working their way all day invisibly into my body. This is because these molecules, less than the size of a virus, penetrates my walls.
Why are policticians consigning us to accept that the liberty of wood burning families is valued higher than our liberty to breathe clean air.
Okay, there is a lot agreement by many on this blog, question what to do about it. First get onto the Families for Clean Air website and download their posters and then, hand copies out to everybody, local shops, schools, creche's et al. Second contact your council to find out the situation, and then threaten to sue them if they don't protect your health. It once seemed impossible to ban cigarette smoking but eventually this prevailed. This won't happen with banning wood burning stoves in urban areas until people start become bolshie.
At the moment the idiots with their dreamy fetish for the living flame are winning. I'm sick of being on the receiving end of it. Are you? If so let's start to tentatively network , and organise.
Why? Read the comments here. The aggravation and misery shown here are truly indicative of how even "approved" burners make for dreadful smoke. All smoke is filth. People don't want to breathe smoke. It is as simple as that. People have a right not to breathe smoke, therefore all things that produce smoke should be outlawed. Cause and effect. No excuses.
Being surrounded by 3 houses in a built up area that regularly pump out smoke and fumes it is not a comfortable or healthy environment.
I cannot believe in this day and age we are allowing this to happen. We are slowly walking into a health time bomb.
As far as I can see none of these activities tick the enviromental box never mind the health implications of all these devices.
My experience with dealing with the local authorities has not been good as they are mainly interested in pollution caused by cars. This is also a concern I share but they seemed to have dropped the baton with this one and are merrily allowing this phenomenon to grow.
Also, smokeless fuel is not really smokeless. Should really be rename lesssmoke fuel.
This is a topic I care about and would be keen to hear from anyone with similar views
I
We are in a smoke control area but the local council says as long as the burner comply's with current regulations they can't do anything about it.
Many other people in the street are suffering with smoke entering their propertiy too.
Can anyone suggest anything.
Who ever thought breathing this smoke is ok must be raving bonkers or cut in on the profits of sales of wood burners.
Any smoke constantly breathed in is just awful and something needs to Be done about it .
We have a wood burning stove in a smokeless zone, fitted to the letter of legislation. We did a lot of research about it before fitting. Our neighbour is now complaining regularly about them smell, has reported us to the environment agency and generally upset the whole family, adding greatly to high stress and depression already being caused by other problems. We understand their worry, but most of the times they have complained we haven't even had it lit. So we are basically being targeted because of another house's fire in the area. They have started coming round after 10 at night, when they are aware we go to bed around then, we are starting to feel harassed/bullied. Citizens advice could not help, only telling us not to let it get physical. Can anyone suggest a way this can be remedied without the need for legal action?
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