Jemima Hartshorn

WOOD-BURNING stoves have become as much a middle-class cliché of north London life as avocado on toast, Boden babywear and holidaying in the Dordogne.

But campaigners have warned they should be seen as the “next cigarettes” due to the potential damage caused to human lungs. And beyond the danger they might pose to owners, alarm bells are also ringing over how they add to the city’s polluted air.

Jemima Hartshorn, from the campaign group Mums for Lungs, told the New Journal: “The situation is that people continue to be polluted in their homes, poisoned in their homes by their neighbours’ actions, or inadvertently people are poisoning themselves because we don’t know any better.”

She added: “We’re looking at a lifestyle or homestyle choice that is fostered by absolute unawareness of consumers as well as the media of what they are actually promoting. This is the next cigarettes, this is the diesel of the 2020s.

“The majority of the pollution will be in your living room and also going into the flue into your neighbours bed­rooms or living rooms.”

She warned that while people may be drawn towards fire out of “primal instinct” as “it’s warm, cosy and feels natural,” studies show that particulate matter released by stoves – known as PM2.5 – is the world’s most dangerous air pollutant.

Ms Hartshorn, who founded her charity in 2017 after becoming alarmed at the level of pollution her baby was being exposed to, added: “The evidence is really clear long before you can smell smoke it is already unhealthy. If it is the air it is dangerous and if you think about how often in London you can smell woodsmoke, but even before then your body is being damaged.”

Mums for Lungs has called on local authorities each year to raise awareness of the dangers of wood-burning stoves. The issue was raised last month in a new report by

Professor Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical officer, on wider pollution – which he believes contributes to the deaths of 36,000 people a year. Small particle pollution caused by wood burning increased by more than a third from 2010 to 2020, his report said.

Many of the households that burn wood do so for aesthetic reasons, Professor Whitty said. He warned that while possible harmful substances in the home can be released by dry wood covered in paint, wet wood is also more dangerous.

Ms Hartshorn would like to see wood burners banned by the government, with an end to the sale of burners within five years, while Professor Whitty called for a less restrictive approach with better information available to people.

Sales for stoves hit 250,000 last year – more than double the number in the previous year. That figure had already risen by more than a third between 2010 to 2020, with some 1.5 million households now choosing to burn wood.

The stoves, which can cost up to £2,000 and are used to heat homes and cook food, were once more familiarly used in country cottages, but in recent years have become popular among interior designers kitting out picture-perfect homes in urban areas, too.

“If the government doesn’t do something about it, it’s not obvious who else can,” Professor Whitty said in his report. “Clearly, my wish is for air pollution [action] to move as quickly as possible.”

In October the government missed its own legal deadline to set new air pollution targets into law and most of Islington, Camden and Westminster, in line with urban areas nationally, have poor air quality considered illegal.

Fines can be issued if the wrong sort of fuel is used, and the council has warned consumers that marketing labels such as “clean burn” do not guarantee a burner will be allowed in smoke-controlled areas.

The Stove Industry Alliance has regularly hit back against claims that products are all dangerous and have said comparing the burners with HGVs is like “comparing apples to oranges”. Andy Hill, chair of the Stove Industry Alliance, said last year that when making the comparison “no consideration has been given as to how stoves and HGVs are used in real life or the height at which they vent”.