Essex people warned closing windows or using log burners to cut energy bills ‘increases health risk’
It's as people look to save money during the cost of living crisis
People of Essex are being warned to protect their health during the cost of living crisis.
We're being told some ways to cut energy bills may make us more vulnerable to health risks - for example, having no ventilation while cooking, turning the heating off, and using log burners to cut on gas and electricity.
Ian Colbeck, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Essex, told us how harmful it is to use wood burning stoves: "Although it has been reduced recently, emissions of particulate matter of wood burning stoves is still higher nationally than the emissions of road traffic.
“They are particularly harmful because a lot of the particulate matter they emit is small enough to get into the bloodstream, and it can go round all the organs in the body, up to the heart and the brain...
"Cost-wise, wood burning stoves are cheaper than gas and electricity, but you do have to bear in mind the possible health impacts, especially when you open and close the door of the stoves, because you get a large wave of pollutants coming into your room."
Professor Colbeck also highlighted the importance of good indoor ventilation, noting a lot of COVID-19 cases have been transmitted in closed spaces: “Even with air conditioning, the air flow could still move the COVID from one area to another. From that point of view, it is very important to have windows open and bringing fresh air if you are in an enclosed space.”
Cath Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds, took this one step further, saying the importance of indoor ventilation goes beyond COVID, as other infections like chicken pox, measles, TB, and other respiratory diseases such as influenza, can also pose a higher risk in poorly ventilated spaces.
Professor Noakes told PA: “We breathe about 14,000 litres of air every day. A lot of what we’re exposed to comes from what we breathe.
“Around 90% of the time we’re indoors – that might be your home, workplace, schools, transport, and social settings.
“There is so much evidence that the quality of the air we breathe is really important for our health – and ventilation is a really big part of that.”