English councils issue only 19 fines for wood smoke despite 18,000 complaints

Mums for Lungs writes to health secretary calling for toxic wood-burning stoves to be banned by 2027

Only seven councils in England have issued fines for toxic wood smoke, a total of 19 penalties in the past six years, despite more than 18,000 complaints.

The campaign group Mums for Lungs, which gathered the data, has written to the health secretary calling for wood stoves to be phased out by 2027 because of the deceptively high levels of air pollution they emit.