<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/13/wood-heating-could-be-worse-than-thought-for-rural-air-study-suggests>
"We think of cities as the places with the worst air pollution, but studies are
increasingly highlighting severe air pollution in rural towns and villages,
mainly from wood heating. However, government measurement networks mainly focus
on cities, overlooking the air breathed by the 20-30% of people in the UK and
Europe that live in the countryside.
To plug this gap, a team of scientists moved to the village of Retje in
Slovenia for the winter. Retje is home to 690 people, and located in a valley.
Dr Kristina Glojek, from the University of Nova Gorica, described a scene that
could be on a Christmas card: “The scenery seems idyllic; a small village with
a church on top of a hill surrounded by dense forest and frequently covered
with snow. Yet, in the cold part of the year, the village is often enveloped in
a brownish fog.”
Public buildings in the village are connected to a district heating scheme but
householders burn mainly wood.
Air pollution measurement equipment was installed in the village and on the
nearby hillside. For two months, three times a day, Glojek and colleagues set
out on a 4-mile (6km) walk carrying a backpack full of measurement equipment.
By the end of the investigations they had covered a total of nearly 400 miles.
Glojek explained some of the practicalities: “Low temperatures, early darkness,
constant problems with the scientific equipment and also a lot of wildlife,
including bears. These hibernate, but not the whole time. When air settled in
the valley, particle pollution reached the level of the most polluted cities of
the world. After walking for two hours, three times a day we could not wash off
the smell. Out of 88 winter days, 34 of them exceeded the legal limits.”
Despite this data, the local perception was quite different. Glojek said:
“Seventy per cent believed that air quality in their area was good, and 89%
believed that wood smoke did not have a negative effect on health. All the
other culprits of local pollution were mentioned, although they are practically
non-existent in the area.”
Wood-burning is often portrayed as climate-neutral. In reality it is not.
Cutting down trees leads to the loss of an active carbon-sink, and wood-burning
also produces climate heating methane. In Retje, the researchers studied the
smoke, which contained black soot and brown particles that could absorb the
sun’s heat."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
