DR MURRAY MAY says the scientific evidence for removing wood heaters altogether is overwhelming. “However, the Canberra Liberals plan to reverse the decision to phase out wood heaters. Can you believe it?”

The scientific evidence for removing wood heaters altogether is now overwhelming. 

However, the Canberra Liberals actually plan to reverse the ACT government’s decision to phase out wood heaters. Can you believe it?

Wood heaters are essentially a community wide version of public smoking, yet smoking is now banned in offices, restaurants and public venues. 

Wood smoke is linked to deaths and diseases, including from cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, strokes, cancers, dementia and greatly aggravating asthma. 

The health costs of residential wood heaters in Greater Sydney are more than $2 billion annually, according to a Sydney Air Quality Study fact sheet 2023).  

In Canberra, the estimated annual equivalent cost of deaths from wood heaters is from $57 million to $136 million, depending on how severe the winter is (Medical Journal of Australia, 2023).

The smoke from wood heaters is not just sending harmful emissions to neighbours and the wider community. A large US study involving 50,000 women found that more frequent use of indoor wood heaters led to greater risk for the users themselves. 

For example, people who used their wood burner on more than 30 days a year had a 68 per cent increased lung cancer risk compared with people who did not burn wood.

Public health physician Prof Fay Johnston, from the Centre for Safe Air at the University of Tasmania, said of the US study: “The message for policymakers and the public is clear. Wood heater smoke is not safe. Interventions to reduce exposure in homes and neighbourhoods should be a priority.”

The Canberra Liberals appear to have bought into the spin from the wood-heater industry that newer wood heaters are better for the environment. In fact, these heaters are not a great deal better than those from 20 years ago. The existing wood heater standard does not reflect real-life emissions; this limits its usefulness as a tool for reducing air pollution. 

In the NZ towns of Alexandra, Arrowtown, Clyde and Cromwell, wood heaters are the single most important source of air pollution. These towns required all heaters with AS/NZS 4013 ratings over 1.5 g/kg to be removed by January 2012 and required all new installations to have stricter emissions ratings of 0.7 g/kg.

Despite this, all four towns continued to have multiple exceedances of the NZ 24-hour air quality standard for PM2.5 particulate pollution.

Australia should learn from the Danes. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman has already acted against the greenwashing of wood heaters and wood burning. In 2023, 23 companies were charged with violating that country’s Marketing Practices Act with what it considered deceptive environmental claims about wood burning. 

The Ombudsman stated that “marketing must therefore not give the consumer the impression that burning wood in a certified wood heater is less harmful than it is. Further, wood heaters can no longer be marketed as being carbon neutral, because it is misleading.”

Dr Murray May has worked long-term on environmental health issues in the federal public service and at UNSW Canberra.