Wood burning: fireplaces and stoves

Inhaling these substances is unhealthy for everyone, but especially for people with respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, the elderly and children. They may develop more and earlier symptoms from wood smoke. Even with small amounts of wood smoke. There are also people who are bothered by the smell of wood smoke.
You can read more information about wood smoke and health on the RIVM website. https://www.rivm.nl/houtrook

What can you do if you are affected by wood smoke? 

It is very difficult for us as a municipality to act against wood smoke nuisance. This is because there are currently no rules that allow us to measure and assess nuisances in an objective manner. So it is difficult for us to determine what is a nuisance and what is not. Because while one neighbor may not find wood smoke annoying at all, another neighbor may be greatly disturbed by just a little smoke. This makes it difficult for us to enforce.

Are you suffering from wood smoke yourself? 

Then we advise you to talk to the stoker yourself. Often the stoker does not know at all that the neighbors are bothered by his heating behavior. Try to come to an agreement together to limit or stop the nuisance.
With these tips from Milieu Centraal you can prepare the conversation with your neighbor. 

Are you still bothered by the smoke? And can't work it out together? Then you can report the nuisance to the municipality. Based on your complaint, we will investigate whether we can enforce and, if so, how we can do so. 

What can you keep in mind when burning wood? 

Do you burn wood yourself and want to know how you can make sure that the neighbors are bothered as little as possible by your wood stove? Then follow Milieu Centraal's heating tips

Fuel Alert

Before you start heating, always check the stokewijzer so you know when it is better to leave the fire out.
Also pay attention to the RIVM fire alarm.

The RIVM issues burning alerts for each province. They do this at times when, due to weather conditions and/or air quality, the burning of wood may cause a lot of nuisance and may cause additional health complaints.
This may be when there is little wind, because then the smoke does not blow away as well. Or if the air quality is already poor, such as when there is smog from particulate matter, because then wood smoke exacerbates the situation. In these situations it is therefore better not to burn wood. 

Also receive the heating alerts from RIVM? 

Anyone can sign up for RIVM's heating alert. When a heating alert is issued, subscribers are notified by e-mail. You can subscribe via the website of RIVM

You can read more about wood burning, the Stookwijzer and the stoke alert at the Environment Information Point