People have been warned to "think twice" about using log burners at home. It comes after a six-month study discovered that the fashionable stoves continually exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines for air pollution.
The research, carried out between November and March, found 11 exceedances of the WHO's ultra-fine particulate pollution recommendations. Sensors were placed in houses where fuel-burning appliances were installed and participants were given technology to monitor the pollution emitted.
Burning wood or coal creates tiny particulates called PM2.5 and PM10. The 10 sensors in the study, carried out in Bristol, found that the average log burner emitted 10 PM10 and 12 PM2.5, The Express reports.
