Pollutionwatch: Dangers of adding rubbish to home fires
Briefly

The town where I live, Miskolc, is known to have some of the most polluted air in Europe. Every winter, everyone notices the poor air quality. The problem is augmented by burning waste at home.
In Hungary, 2-10% of households also burn waste in their home heating boiler, while in Poland it is at least 10%. In the UK, at least 4% of homes that burn solid fuel indoors also burn rubbish on their fire.
Cotton, cardboard and coated paper caused the biggest increases in the particle pollution in the chimney. In some cases, adding 10% waste doubled the particle pollution.
They can take on many different shapes. My two favourites are tar-ball conglomerates and soot agglomerates associated with inorganic crystal particles. As dangerous as they are, they are also remarkably beautiful.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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