Wood stoves may bring a cosy warmth to the home, but increasing research shows they are harmful to health. In response, the Eindhoven City Council is considering a ban on stoking fires during certain weather conditions.
“I often get a dry throat and cough,” says Femke Kerbosch, who lives in Helmond. “My house is small, and I have two dogs, so I like to open a window for fresh air, but I can’t.” Femke’s neighbours burn wood from early morning until late at night, causing her home to be constantly surrounded by smoke. As a result, she is forced to seal her house tightly, keeping windows shut all day long.
“I wake up at 5 a.m. when there’s no smoke, so I can air out the house until 7:30 a.m.,” she explains. “But after that, I have to close everything again. I’m even planning to seal my chimney soon because smoke is coming in through there too.”
Stookwijzer App
Under new regulations from the Eindhoven municipality, wood stoves can only be used when smoke disperses quickly. To help residents determine when it’s safe to burn wood, the city has introduced the Stookwijzer—an app that provides real-time weather updates. The app will show a yellow code when it’s safe to use the stove, and a red code when burning must be avoided.
Awareness
Stove expert Hans van der Vorst thinks the introduction of the new heating laws is a good idea. ‘People need to become aware of which days they are allowed to fire wood. There is absolutely nothing wrong with stoking wood, but you have to do it responsibly. Similarly, people need to know what wood they are firing with.’
Femke also notices this lack of awareness. ‘My neighbours fire on cheap pallet wood, which is bad anyway, but they also sometimes just use pallets that are painted.’
Eindhoven is the second municipality to introduce these new rules, but the problem is everywhere. Meanwhile, there is also an action group against wood burning, of which Femke is a member. ‘A lot of people are bothered by wood-burning stoves, but they don’t report this. Via the Stookwijzer app, you can make a report if you experience nuisance. Many people do not do this, so the municipality does not know how big the problem is,’ says Femke. She shows dozens of reports to the municipality that she has submitted herself.
Enforcement
Some municipalities say that these rules around wood burning are difficult to enforce because there are not enough staff. Femke thinks this is nonsense: ‘If you introduce this law, people will automatically comply with it. Just look at the rules around smoking indoors in public places; everyone complies with them by now.’
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven news: Chaitali Sengupta.
