This page provides a summary of the some the key research into the health impacts of wood smoke pollution.

 

Wood smoke consists of fine particles (mostly PM2.5 and ultrafine particles) that are so fine (30 times smaller than the width of a human hair) they can enter the lungs and bloodstream and affect every organ in the body. 

 

Wood smoke pollution causes or contributes to:

• An increased risk of heart attacks (Weichenthal, 2017), cardiovascular disease (Brook et al., 2010) and strokes (Shah et al., 2015)

• Lung cancers (Bruce et al., 2015) (Mehta et al, 2023)

• The development of asthma and increased severity of asthma symptoms (Borchers-Arriagarda, 2019; Bui et al., 2013; Asthma Australia, 2021)

• Dementia (Oudin et al., 2018)

• Adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirth and low birth weight (Amegah et al., 2014).

 

An EPA/NSW-Health study found that despite wood heaters being used by around 4% of Sydney residents the smoke emissions are estimated to cause 100 premature deaths per year in Sydney alone (Broome et al., 2020).

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Who is at risk?

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Wood smoke affects healthy people and those with health conditions. Research shows there is no safe level of exposure to PM2.5 pollution (Hanigan et al., 2019). Even short-term exposure to wood smoke pollution can have health impacts on otherwise healthy people (Stockfelt, et al., 2012; Unosson et al., 2013; Barregard et al.,2006).

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Children are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of particle pollution, which can affect lung and respiratory function and brain development (Cerbika et al., 2020). For people with asthma and respiratory illnesses, wood smoke can worsen respiratory symptoms (Bui et al., 2013). An Australian survey found those with asthma are twice as likely to experience respiratory symptoms when exposed to wood heater smoke compared to the general population (Asthma Australia, 2021).

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Education is needed

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Each wood heater in Australia contributes to an estimated $3800 in health costs per year (Robinson, 2011). While cigarette smoking has been the focus of Australian education campaigns, there is minimal education on the very similar health harms of wood smoke pollution. The low level of health literacy in the community about the health impacts is  ensuring the ongoing harm to the population's health.

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Research reports

Below is a small sample of the recent studies into the impact of wood smoke pollution on human health. For a more complete list refer to the website of the US organisation Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution. 

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• Vardoulakis S, Johnston FH, Goodman N, Morgan GG, Robinson DL (2024) Wood heater smoke and mortality in the Australian Capital Territory: a rapid health impact assessment. Med J Aust; 220 (1):29-34.11 doi:10.5694/mja2.52176 published online 15 January 2024.

• Richard A. Broom, Jennifer Powell, Martin E. Cope and Geoffrey G. Morgan (from the NSW Ministry of Health, CSIRO, Sydney University School of Public Health) attributing 45 premature deaths in the Sydney metro area to power stations and 100 to wood heaters. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201934070X#t0015

• Chan KH, Yan M, Bennett DA, Guo Y, Chen Y, Yang L, et al. (2021) Long-term solid fuel use and risks of major eye diseases in China: A population-based cohort study of 486,532 adults. PLoS Med 18(7): e1003716. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003716

• Montrose, Luke (2020) What’s in that wildfire smoke, and why is it so bad for your lungs? The Conversation ://theconversation.com/whats-in-that-wildfire-smoke-and-why-is-it-so-bad-for-your-lungs-​

• Cserbika, Chen, McConnell, Berhane, Sowell, Schwartz, Hackman, Kan, Fan, Herting (2020), Fine particulate matter exposure during childhood relates to hemispheric-specific differences in brain structure, Environment International, Volume 143, October 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020318882

• Desikan, A. (2017). Outdoor Air Pollution as a Possible Modifiable Risk Factor to Reduce Mortality in Post-Stroke Population. Neural Regeneration Research, 12(3), 351–353

• Irga, Oliver, Torpy (2020) Like having a truck idling in your living room’: the toxic cost of wood-fired heaters, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/like-having-a-truck-idling-in-your-living-room-the-toxic-cost-of-wood-fired-heaters-140737

• Nicolas Borchers-Arriagada,Andrew J. Palmer, David M.J.S. Bowman, Grant J. Williamson, and Fay H. Johnston, (2020) Health Impacts of Ambient Biomass Smoke in Tasmania, Australia: https://www.menzies.utas.edu.au/news-and-events/media-releases/2020/new-study-shows-the-health-impacts-of-biomass-smoke-exposure-in-tasmania

• Nicolas Borchers Arriagada, Andrew J Palmer, David MJS Bowman, Geoffrey G Morgan, Bin B Jalaludin and Fay H Johnston (2020), Med J Aust || doi: 10.5694/mja2.50545, Published online: 23 March 2020: Unprecedented smoke‐related health burden associated with the 2019–20 bushfires in eastern Australia: https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/213/6/unprecedented-smoke-related-health-burden-associated-2019-20-bushfires-eastern 

• Monash University - 25/06/2020 (News article summarising the Queensland study) Australian study casts doubt on WHO safe standards of air pollution, showing low levels of pollution are deadly: https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/australian-study-casts-doubt-on-who-safe-standards-of-air-pollution,-showing-low-levels-of-pollution-are-deadly.

• A., Quansah R., Jaakkola J. (2014). Household Air Pollution from Solid Fuel Use and Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Evidence: A113920. PLoS One, 9(12)

• Robinson, Horsley, Johnston and Morgan (2021)The effects on mortality and the associated financial costs of wood heater pollution in a regional Australian City, Med J Aust || doi: 10.5694/mja2.51199, Published online: 9 August 2021 https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/6/effects-mortality-and-associated-financial-costs-wood-heater-pollution-regional

• Robinson, D (2020) Accurate, Low Cost PM2.5 Measurements Demonstrate the Large Spatial Variation in Wood Smoke Pollution in Regional Australia and Improve Modeling and Estimates of Health Costs, Atmosphere 2020, 11(8), 856; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11080856

• Roux J., Bard D., Le Pabic E., Segala C., Reis J., Ongagna J.C., de Sèze J., Leray E. (2017). Air Pollution by Particulate Matter PM10 May Trigger Multiple Sclerosis Relapses. Environmental Research, 156, 404–410.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935117300518

• Di Q., Wang Y., Zanobetti A., Wang Y., Koutrakis P., Choirat F.D., Schwartz J.D. (2017). Air Pollution and Mortality in the Entire Medicare Population. New England Journal of Medicine, 376, 2513–2522.

• Wenhua Yu,Yuming Guo ,Liuhua Shi, Shanshan Li (2020) 'The association between long-term exposure to low-level PM2.5 and mortality in the state of Queensland, Australia: A modelling study with the difference-in-differences approach'. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.100314

• World Health Organization. Outdoor Air Pollution a Leading Environmental Cause of Cancer Deaths. Published online 2013.