A sharp rise in wood burning in urban areas could be bringing harmful pollution to greater numbers of people, and shifting the pattern of pollution from poorer to more affluent areas, one of the UK’s leading air pollution experts has warned. Currently, air pollution monitoring focuses on busy roads, which have been the main hotspots for fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) and other air pollutants, largely from diesel vehicles. That means researchers could be missing the creation of new hotspots from wood-burning stoves… “As a first step people have to understand that the wood smoke could be harming their health. People need to understand that the wood smoke that fills their neighbourhood is as harmful as the air pollution from traffic or industry,” Fuller told the Guardian.