Eco zealots on Labour-run council are accused of ‘scaremongering’ over ‘killer’ wood-burning stoves

A ‘woke‘ council has restarted a campaign warning residents that wood-burning stoves are ‘cosy killers’ after receiving a warning from the advertising watchdog.

Brighton and Hove City Council first launched a drive against the use of stoves and open fires in homes last December amid concerns they produce deadly air pollution.

But critics accused officials of ‘scaremongering’ and the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) warned the council over a claim included in the ‘cosy killer’ campaign. 

The ASA said the suggestion that ‘particle pollution contributes to 1 in 20 deaths of people over the age of 30’ could only be made if ‘backed up by adequate evidence.’

This month, the Labour-run local authority has restarted its campaign under the same ‘cosy killer’ tagline, but with a new claim stating that ‘last winter, particle pollution in Brighton and Hove was 91% higher compared with the summer’.

The ASA confirmed today it had received further complaints about the campaign, which it was now assessing to decide whether further action will be required.

Wood burners are used by about two million UK households to save cash on heating bills, and the modern stoves which use advanced combustion technology are pitched as offering a more eco-friendly and safer alternative to older models and open fires.

But scientists have also warned they can affect indoor air quality, causing potentially serious health implications by releasing pollutants such as ultrafine particles (UFPs), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide.

The wording of the council’s latest campaign was criticised by local businesses and councillors who believe people in the area are being ‘guilt-tripped’.

Hove Wood Burners director Andy Genovese said it was ‘scaremongering’, telling the Telegraph: ‘In April I got the ASA to review their campaign; the ASA criticised them.

‘The campaign was detrimental to the solid-fuel industry. They are not listening, I’ve now submitted a second complaint to the ASA last week. It is astonishing.

‘In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis the council seems to think it is appropriate to tell people not to use the cheapest form of heating that they have.’

Chimney sweep Rob Whittingdon, owner of The Purple Sweep in Brighton, told the newspaper that he had spoken to one anxious customer who was ‘doing all the right things’ and acting ‘legally and responsibly’ but is ‘worried she will get a sinister knock on the door from a Brighton council official at any moment’.

Alistair McNair, a Conservative councillor for Patcham and Hollingbury in the city, added: ‘The cosy killer campaign is obviously fearmongering – why use the word ‘killer’? And a Labour council trying to guilt-trip legal users of wood burners.’

Launching the campaign on December 2, the council asked residents to ‘think twice before lighting their fires and wood-burning stoves’ after ‘data from air quality sensors’ in the city showed ‘dramatic increases in harmful particle pollution last winter’.

The authority said that a year’s worth of readings from the ‘Brighton and Hove and Sussex Real-Time Air Quality Portal’, launched last year, showed PM2.5 pollution was 91 per cent higher during the winter months compared with the summer.

It added that wood burners and open fires were ‘a major contributor of PM2.5 – fine particles (more than 20 times thinner than a human hair) that, once inhaled, can enter the bloodstream and be transported around the body’.

The advert also said there were 40 days between November 2024 and April 2025 when PM2.5 levels in the city ‘exceeded recommended maximum levels and that particle pollution was 78 per cent higher near four city primary schools in the winter months compared with the summer’.

Councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said: ‘In 2024, we launched the largest real-time air quality monitoring network in the country so that we could build a more detailed picture of the causes of poor air quality across the city.

‘The data shows very clearly that particle pollution levels almost doubled during the winter months, when we know many people use open fires and wood-burning stoves.

‘Wood-burners in particular have soared in popularity in recent years, not as a primary heat source but as a luxury. Our campaign is highlighting the damaging impact particle pollution coming from wood burners and open fires is having on our heath.

‘I’d urge residents with fireplaces and wood-burners to think about the risks to themselves and others before using them this winter.’

In an additional statement to the Daily Mail today, Mr Rowkins said: ‘The research and scientific consensus on this subject is clear: particle pollution coming from wood burners and open fires has a damaging impact on people’s health.

‘Our campaign raises awareness of that impact so our residents have the information they need to make choices about their health.

‘We now also have very clear local data that shows particle pollution in our city is 91 per cent higher during the winter months, when we know many people use open fires and wood-burning stoves.’

The council has also been looking at expanding the city’s Smoke Control Areas (SCAs), where it is an office to emit visible smoke from a building’s chimney.

Ivan Lyons, Conservative councillor for Westdene and Hove Park in Brighton and Hove, said: ‘Unfortunately, we do have a woke council, who are gerrymandering parts of the city with their smoke control areas.’

An ASA spokeswoman told the Daily Mail: ‘We previously received a complaint about a magazine ad for Brighton City Council’s ‘Cosy Killer’ campaign which claimed, in relation to wood burners and open fires, that ‘particle pollution contributes to 1 in 20 deaths of people over the age of 30’. The complainant challenged whether this claim was misleading and could be substantiated.

‘We wrote to the advertiser with an Advice Notice, explaining that if consumers are likely to understand a claim as an objective one, then advertisers are required to hold adequate supporting evidence to substantiate said claim.

‘We told Brighton City Council that they shouldn’t make objective claims in relation to the effects of wood burners and open fires if those claims can’t be backed up by adequate evidence.’

She added that the ASA had recently received further complaints about this campaign which were being assessed to determine whether there are grounds for further action – although it is not currently investigating.

Wood-burning stoves could face tighter restrictions UK-wide under tough new rules on air pollution set to be introduced by the Government.

Environment secretary Emma Reynolds said earlier this month that a new environmental improvement plan – the first of Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet – would set ‘delivery plans’ for targets in line with those in the European Union.

Among the pollutants targeted in the new plan are PM2.5 particulates.

These are so small that they can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream if inhaled, and are considered the most harmful pollutant to human health by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Particulate pollution is widely agreed to be the air pollutant with the biggest impact on human health, increasing the risk of respiratory and heart conditions.

In October, a report claimed wood-burning stoves and open fires are linked to 2,500 deaths a year in Britain – and banning them could save the NHS £54million a year. 

The study was commissioned by climate charity Global Action Plan and Hertfordshire County Council, and produced by UK environmental consultancy Ricardo.

One month earlier, other researchers warned wood-burning stoves can damage the lungs in a similar way to cigarette smoke.

Their study, presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, showed those who used wood stoves lost lung capacity more quickly than non-users – even though they tended to be wealthier, healthier and less likely to smoke.

And a separate study in July revealed wood-burners release high concentrations of toxic pollutants that pose serious health risks.

Researchers monitored five homes in Guildford, Surrey, that used a range of heating stoves and clean solid fuels, including seasoned wood, kiln-dried wood, wood briquette and smokeless coal.

The highest emissions were open fireplaces, which increased PM2.5 exposure up to seven times more than modern stoves.