A crackdown on wood burning stoves is at the centre of a Government drive to reduce air pollution as ministers deem it the UK’s biggest environmental threat to human health. Under a new clean air strategy to be announced on Tuesday, wood burners that pump out too much smoke will be banned from sale, along with certain types of car tyres and brakes, cleaning solvents, fertilisers and solid fuels. Writing in Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, and Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, promise that Britain will set a “gold standard” in air quality after Brexit by going “further and faster” than proposed EU changes to regulations. They say air pollution is the fourth-biggest threat to health after cancer, heart disease and obesity, and publish a clean -air strategy that builds on work to cut pollution from diesel and petrol-driven vehicles. Mr Gove and Mr Hunt say: “With the world getting wealthier, and technology getting cleaner, it is unacceptable that poor air quality is cutting lives short, damaging children’s health and poisoning our natural environment. New regulations will be introduced to ban the sale of stoves that do not meet tough environmental standards. New “ecodesign” models that use improved air circulation to burn fuel cleaner will become the only ones allowed on sale. The move will not be retrospective, meaning existing stoves can stay in use. Logs that are sold in bags on garage forecourts and by DIY stores and other outlets will also have to conform to a dryness test, as wet logs increase the amount of smoke released into the environment. The dirtiest types of coal will also be banned, saving 8,000 tonnes of pollution going into the atmosphere each year.
Telegraph 21st May 2018 read more »