Wood burning and gas cooking hugely costly to healthcare systems, New Zealand study finds | Environment
Air pollution from wood burning and gas cooking is extremely costly to our health systems and the economy. These are the findings of a peer-reviewed New Zealand study that calculated the cost of hospital care, sick days and premature deaths from air pollution from fireplaces, stoves, gas cooking and unvented heaters.
Indoor air pollution caused by New Zealand’s 523,000 wood stoves is estimated to be responsible for 446 hospitalizations for heart and lung problems, and 101 premature deaths per year, in a country of just over 5 million people. Breathing fumes from indoor gas cooking has led to more than 1,000 hospitalizations, 208 premature deaths and more than 3,000 new cases of childhood asthma each year.
Dr Gareth Gretton, from the New Zealand Government’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, said: “We were aware of the growing international evidence of the importance of indoor air quality, but we did not have a method to quantify the cost of air pollution caused by gas and wood-burning appliances. »
Open fires have been found to be the most harmful way to heat a home. The health impacts of additional air pollution breathed into each home following a fire resulted in an annual cost of around NZ$53,400 (£23,000) to New Zealand’s health system and economy. This assumes a household of two adults and two children exposed to indoor air pollution from their open fire.
Even modern stoves created indoor air pollution. Researchers estimated that the air pollution breathed by each household using one of these devices would cost health and the economy NZ$1,800 each year. And indoor pollution from gas cooking resulted in an annual cost of NZ$9,200 for each household.
Jayne Metcalfe, of New Zealand consultancy Emission Impossible, said: “The hardest part was estimating how different indoor combustion appliances affect air quality in homes. We looked at studies from New Zealand and overseas, but indoor air quality is complex. Even so, the results were clear: whatever assumptions you use, the health costs related to indoor air pollution are important for all combustion appliances we examined.”
She added: “The health impacts of indoor air pollution are significant. A simple way to reduce them is to replace gas hobs with electric ones wherever possible – and ideally avoid installing new ones. That’s a win – a win for both health and the climate.”
Wood burning also contributes to outdoor air pollution, which affects the local community. This additional health cost amounted to NZD 3,200 (£1,400) per year for each modern wood stove and up to NZD 26,800 (£11,500) for each open fire.
This is much higher than estimates for London, where air pollution from a typical wood-burning stove creates an annual health cost of around £800 in the surrounding community, which broadly corresponds to an EU-wide estimate of €760 (£660) for each household with a wood-burning stove. Much of this difference can be explained by usage, and the New Zealand study could provide a glimpse into the future if British homes burned more wood.
A 2015 survey found that less than 5% of New Zealand homes had central heating. Instead, heating one room at a time is the norm, including with wood fires and portable heaters. Around 95% of UK homes have central heating, and wood and coal fires are rarely needed as the main heating system.
