College supports Clean Air Night

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) is supporting Clean Air Night which takes place tonight, 22nd January 2025, and is organised by Global Action Plan. The College has been at the forefront of leading health professionals’ calls for restrictions on wood burning in Scotland, and Clean Air Night, a new sister campaign for Clean Air Day, hopes to further shine a light on the health harms from wood burning. Pressures on household finances have tempted more people towards burning wood in the belief that it is cheaper or more environmentally friendly. However, campaigners are highlighting that wood burning hurts your wallet, your health and the planet.

Large scientific studies have shown the health risks of wood burning in the home. The air pollution particles, PM2.5 particles, are so small they can enter the blood stream via the lungs and affect all major organs, causing real damage.  Whilst many people are aware that lung damage and asthma are linked to wood smoke pollution, less well recognised is the effect this smoke can have on increasing cancer. Worryingly, in a preprint article studying 317,498 UK residents, in the medical journal the Lancet, these particles have now been shown to be definitively linked to dementia, underscoring the importance of environmental interventions in dementia prevention. 

Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:

 The evidence is increasingly clear that the seeds of dementia can be sown much earlier in life and as such that prevention, including in relation to air quality, and attention to brain health over the life course are of huge importance. 

The rising prevalence of cognitive impairment and dementia presents a growing challenge for our health and social care services, as well as so many individuals and their families. This recent Lancet report should again spur the government to ensure both that air quality and emissions targets currently enshrined in legislation are actually enforced and met and that more ambitious targets based on WHO guidance are implemented. This has the potential to reduce the number of people developing dementia and to slow down the rate at which cognitive impairment worsens and must therefore be considered a priority.

Professor Jill Belch, Co-chair of the College’s working group on air pollution, said:

 Air pollution of course doesn’t only affect adults, but has significant, and often permanent harmful effects on children’s health.

For the sake of Scotland’s health, we actively support this call for a Clean Air Night to raise awareness of the negative health impacts of wood burning. We further call for more help for those in Scotland off grid, or where outages are frequent, so that they too can chose not to burn wood.

In addition we continue to urge the Scottish Government to adopt the 2021 World Health Organisation air quality guidelines and targets and ensure woodburning policy adheres to these international standards.

Notes:

• More information on Global Action Plan’s Clean Air Night can be found at: https://www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/campaigns/clean-air-night and the 2023 report on the financial costs of wood burning can be accessed here: https://urbanhealth.org.uk/insights/reports/wood-burning-is-more-expensive-than-central-heating 
• The article referred to above in the Lancet can be read here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5070294