Striking a note of caution about wood-burning’s green credentials
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Burning wood is now rebranded as ‘biomass’ and is becoming increasingly popular.
A cautionary note needs to be sounded.
The idea that it is greener to burn wood is becoming a contentious one.
Firstly, burning wood releases huge amounts of airborne particulates and will not benefit respiratory health. Indeed, a study published by New Scientist showed that inhaling wood smoke for an hour is equal to smoking 100 cigarettes. It is vital that the wood to be burnt is carefully treated and dried – but this rarely happens.
City councillor John Tanner at the Town Hall’s boiler
Burning any old wood will not do and may release deadly dioxins, heavy metals and pesticides. Sadly many trees are now being destroyed for wood-burners and not being replanted.
The Oxford editor of the Ecologist magazine, Oliver Tickell, agrees with me. He feels that burning trees is not eco-friendly, as trees give out oxygen and take up carbon dioxide.
We have precious little woodland left in our country.
Shotover Country Park is owned by Oxford City Council. The park rangers have been felling scores of trees and turning them into woodchips for boilers. I believe the city council is slowly destroying this nature reserve.
The council is not replanting any of the mature trees it has felled for firewood – so the idea of wood being a carbon neutral fuel is, frankly, a joke.
SUSAN THOMAS
Magdalen Road
Oxford
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