Because wood is natural and trees can be replanted, many people believe that burning wood is better for the environment than using fossil fuels. 

However, wood burning is extremely polluting. In some countries, it emits more particle pollution than traffic. 

In Canada, for example, official government figures for 2020 estimate that more fine particle pollution comes from residential wood burning (80,000 metric tonnes per year) than from the country’s entire transportation sector combined (31,000 metric tonnes).

Smoke from burning wood creates PM₂.₅, a harmful air pollutant, that passes deep into the lungs and can trigger asthma, heart attacks, strokes, and premature death. 

The elderly, children, and individuals with compromised lungs are more susceptible to PM₂.₅ pollution.

It also emits toxins such as PAHs, dioxins, benzene, mercury, and formaldehyde into our environment, to name a few. Many of these are harmful persistent chemicals that don’t readily break down in the environment and build up inside human and animal body tissues.

A study of the the ecotoxicities of urban particulate matter found that wood smoke was more ecotoxic than particulates emitted from modern diesel engines. https://image.nostr.build/f9f3d202768bc0f5a0a8d34f59f0783b51a40ab689f15e77ea857ee334b1bae8.jpg