22 January 2025
Health Innovation Wessex (HIW) is supporting this year’s Clean Air Night campaign.
Nikki King, Innovation Adoption Programme Manager, leads on environmental sustainability at HIW to support the NHS’ ambition to reduce its environmental impact and become the world’s first net zero national health service. Environmental sustainability is a cross-cutting theme within all programmes at HIW.
In this blog, Nikki describes the Clean Air Night campaign, how it aligns with the recent Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) annual report 2024: health in cities specific recommendations, and why it’s important for us at HIW.
Over the past ten years, the amount of harmful fine particle air pollution caused by lighting fires in our homes has more than doubled (1). Air pollution impacts everyone’s health from our first breath to our last.
Clean Air Night and why it matters
Up to now, it’s been easy to associate the glow of a fire or wood burner with cosiness, but recent evidence shows that air pollution from wood burning is bad for your health (2). Wood burning smoke contains fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, which enters your bloodstream when inhaled and can cause lung disease, strokes and heart attacks (cardiovascular disease), heart disease, diabetes, and dementia (1 and 3).
Wood burning not only harms your health, but also your wallet and the planet (4, 5 and 6). Burning wood is the most polluting way to heat your home, releasing more carbon dioxide than oil or gas for the same amount of energy (5). Recent research reveals that even homes using newer “eco-design” wood burners are three times more polluted than those without (7).
This is why Global Action Plan (GAP) is running Clean Air Night on 22 January 2025 to spark a conversation about wood burning across the country.
Air pollution and wood burning
Even if you don’t see it, burning wood releases harmful fine particle air pollution into your home.
Air pollution is estimated to cause around 40,000 deaths per year in the UK, and its estimated annual cost is £20bn (3). The effects of air pollution are not experienced equally, and certain groups of people are more vulnerable to the effects of air pollution - this is what is known as health inequalities (8). Reducing health inequalities is also a priority across all HIW activity.
Did you know that lighting fires in our homes is the largest source of harmful small particle air pollution in the UK? Wood burning harms our health and the environment, but most people in the UK are unaware that it is a major source of air pollution.
There are lots of reasons why people choose to burn wood in their homes, but whether you like the cosy feeling of a fire or are trying to save money on heating, there is an uncomfortable truth you should know about wood burning. New evidence shows that wood burning:
92% of people burning wood indoors have another way to heat their home (9).
What does the Chief Medical Officer say?
In December 2024, Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England published the CMO annual report which presents information to the government about the health of England’s population and makes recommendations to improve the public health system.
The report identifies challenges and opportunities for improving health in cities. Maintaining good health for the longest possible time can be harder in cities and should be seen as a major priority; however, the barriers to maintaining health of older city residents can be significant (10).
The CMO annual report produced four specific recommendations, one of which was:
To reduce air pollution, transport emissions, including from public transport and space heating (especially solid fuel burners), need particular action specific to cities.
Professor Whitty highlighted that that effects of air pollution are mostly faced in large urban areas where the greatest levels of pollution are combined with the highest concentrations of people.
The role of Health Innovation Wessex and what actions are we taking?
Health innovation networks were established in 2013 to deliver a step-change in the way the NHS identifies, develops, and adopts innovative products and services. HIW helps improve health outcomes, reduce inequalities, and generate economic growth by bringing together health and social care services, academia, and industry, to support the adoption and spread of evidence-based innovation.
Helping our NHS members to meet their net zero commitment is a priority for Health Innovation Wessex; environmental sustainability, is a cross-cutting theme embedded within all programmes. Therefore, this issue is of particular concern to us as wood burning creates harmful carbon dioxide emissions, and trees cannot be reproduced fast enough to offset the carbon dioxide emitted by burning wood (6 and 7). The impact of wood burning and air pollution on people’s health and the planet is evident.
In January 2024, HIW joined the Clean Air South Network, co-founded by Wessex Health Partners and the University of Southampton’s Sustainability and Resilience Institute (SRI). Its membership includes colleagues from HIW, health and care professionals, academia, policy, industry, and local authorities. The Network aims to bring together experts with an interest in research, innovation, policy change and education to address the impacts of poor air quality on the population of the Central South region and inform improvements.
Nikki was invited to attend the launch of Clean Air South – an evidence-based exploration of air quality in the Central South and how we might improve it on 14 January 2025. The report says that air pollution in Dorset and Hampshire and Isle of Wight could be further widening health inequalities, with those living in more deprived areas most affected. Nikki will be sharing her reflections on the launch in the future.
Furthermore, HIW has joined the Air Quality working group convened by Clean Air South Network to have the opportunity to continue influencing and informing improvements in people’s health and wellbeing (e.g. cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease) using multiple approaches involving public health and primary care. The next workshop is due to be held on 27 January 2025.
The HIW Innovation Adoption Team is continuing to work in partnership with the local ICS systems on locally agreed priorities including cardiovascular disease and children and young people’s health addressing health inequalities across the lifespan.
HIW is currently supporting one of the local ICS to transform care and outcomes for people living with cardiovascular disease (CVD). HIW also supports and contributes to the national Health Innovation Network CVD programme which focuses on prevention of disease. Working to reduce air pollution and wood burning will improve the prevention of people developing CVD.
HIW is supporting Clean Air Night to spark a conversation about wood burning across the country and its correlation to people’s health.
If you have an idea or innovation that supports improving air quality, health equity, or cardiovascular health and would like to explore the support we can offer, please complete this Engagement Form.
References
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