A group of public health experts in Denmark have recommended banning residential wood burning.
The Council for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention issued a report (in Danish) on air pollution in Denmark.
The independent expert body explained that virtually all Danes are exposed to health-harming levels of air pollution. They recommended “key prevention measures” to reduce this exposure, including banning the use of wood stoves.
According to the expert group, small-scale combustion appliances—mainly wood burning in private homes—are the largest source of direct fine particle (PM2.5) emissions in Denmark. They are also a significant source of black carbon, which is also a climate pollutant.
Almost a fifth of households in Denmark have a wood stove, and approximately 70,000 households burn wood as their primary heating source.
Some Danish municipalities have already introduced bans on older wood stoves from before 2008. However, the experts noted:
…new wood-burning stoves also pollute, and for some air pollutants such as black carbon (BC), they pollute more than older wood-burning stoves. Therefore, the real health benefit of this limited ban is minimal.
