This page provides links to groups/organisations, key reports and programs focused on wood smoke pollution.​

• Here you can find links to evidence about the health impacts of particle pollution and wood smoke  

• And information on the environmental impacts of particle pollution

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Community action groups and health organisations focused on air pollution

• Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution https://woodsmokepollution.org/

• Families for Clean Air https://www.familiesforcleanair.org

• Australian Air Quality Group - http://woodsmoke.3sc.net/home

• Clean Air Canberra https://cleanaircanberra.com/

• Australian facebook groups including My Air Quality Australia and Clean Air Communities

• Yolo Clean Air: http://www.yolocleanair.com

• Burning Issues: http://burningissues.org

• Air Quality News - https://airqualitynews.com/2020/05/07/the-big-interview-dr-maria-neira-world-health-organization/

• Mums for lungs -UK action group https://www.mumsforlungs.org/about

• Breathelife  A Global Campaign for Clean Air https://breathelife2030.org/

• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is a  partnership of governments, business, and scientific institutions committed to improving air quality and protecting the climate through actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/content/about

Twitter: Clear air activists around the world on twitter - search hashtags #woodsmoke #airpollution #Stopburningstuff #CleanAirNow

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Community organisations focused on climate change and the impacts on health more broadly

• Environmental Justice Australia is a non profit legal and advocacy organisation who work on environmental issues including air pollution. https://www.envirojustice.org.au/

• World Health Organization - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health

• Healthy Futures is a health workers and friends group campaigning on issues of clean air, clean energy and a safe and healthy climate - tackling climate change and fossil fuel pollution.

• The Climate and Health Alliance is Australia’s peak body on climate and health. CAHA is a coalition of 90+ health and medical groups, academic and research institutions, health care service providers and unions - which has a focus broadly on the impacts of climate change on health.

• There are of course many other groups campaigning on climate including Friend of the Earth, Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, Victorian Forest Alliance, School Strike for Climate, Neighbours United for Climate Action and so on.

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Programs addressing wood smoke pollution

• The Launceston wood smoke reduction program https://menzies.utas.edu.au/news-and-events/media-releases/2013/reduction-in-air-pollution-from-wood-heaters-associated-with-reduced-risk-of-death

• The Actsmart Wood Heater Replacement Program (WHRP) aims to improve the ACT’s air quality by offering financial incentives for the removal and disposal of domestic wood burning heaters and their replacement with efficient electric heating systems. https://www.actsmart.act.gov.au/what-can-i-do/homes/wood-heater-replacement-program

• Spare the Air  created in 1991 by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in the USA to alert residents when air quality is forecast to be unhealthy and to share information on ways to reduce air pollution.

• Camden Council, London instituted a Clean Air for Camden program which aims to educate the local community about the harms of particle pollution and places restrictions on the types of things that can be burnt and the types of stoves allowed.

• The NSW Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) Wood Smoke Reduction Program aims to assist local communities to raise awareness about the effects of wood smoke on health and the environment and the benefits of correct wood heater operation.
   

Key Australian reports and submissions

• The ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment released a report in January 2023 titled Can Canberra 'Burn Right Tonight?' or is there 'no safe level of air pollution' - An investigation into wood heater policy in the ACT. Can Canberra 'Burn Right Tonight' or is there 'no safe level of air pollution'? (act.gov.au)

• The EPA recently released their 2016 Emissions Inventory Report which finds that 51% of human-made particle pollution (pm2.5) in Metro Melbourne is from wood heaters compared with 30% for all vehicles and 7% for aircraft (pg 17). You can access the report at https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/about-epa/publications/2028. You may also wish to request the related consultant's report on which some of the data is based (Williamson, G and O'Sullivan, TC, Victorian Wood Heater Inventory Report, EPA Victoria, Australia (2018) go to https://rmdb.research.utas.edu.au/public/rmdb/q/warp_detail/126559

• Asthma Australia have recently released the results of a nationally representative survey (N=25,000 people) which found that 75% of people would support phasing out wood heaters in residential areas.

• Centre for Air Pollution, Energy and Health Research (CAR-CRE) Position Paper on Reducing the Health Impacts of Wood Heaters in Australia, August 2021.

• A 2018 submission to Victoria’s Air Quality Statement by the Melbourne Energy Institute, the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, the Lung Health Research Centre and the Centre for Air Pollution and Energy Research noted that ‘one of the most effective measures we can take to improve air quality is to phase out wood heaters to low polluting forms of home heating’.

• Research commissioned by the NSW EPA into community attitudes towards wood smoke and wood heaters https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/~/media/EPA/Corporate%20Site/resources/woodsmoke/UHWSCR-consultant-report.ashx

• Victorian Auditor-General 2018 Report into air quality in Victoria found the EPA's air quality monitoring provides an inaccurate representation of air quality in Victoria.https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/improving-victorias-air-quality