Firelighters which are used to light open fires and stoves in the home—even if used in small quantities and for a short period of time—emit more black carbon than all biomass fuels put together, leading to alarmingly high levels of toxic air, an international team of researchers from Ireland, China and India has said.

The research is published in the journal  Climate and Atmospheric Science. Professor Jurgita Ovadnevaite, deputy director of Ryan Institute Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies at University of Galway and coordinating scientist of the international research project, said, “Black carbon is one of the main pollutants that affect air quality, acting as a climate forcer or driver, second only to carbon dioxide.  While the effect was revealed in Ireland, the impact of it is relevant to other European countries, the UK, and worldwide, especially now with a rebound in use of solid fuel stoves due to energy crisis.”

The research team described the impact of firelighter use in home heating and the release of black carbon as a significant and previously overlooked source of air pollution. Firelighters are kerosene-based and contain hydrocarbon alkane. They noted that there are an estimated 70 million wood burning stoves, open fires and other solid fuel heating appliances in homes across Europe alone, while an EPA report from 2022 indicates an increase in the number of households switching to solid fuel fires, rather than a decline—a trend which may become more acute in midst of the energy cost crisis.

Professor Jurgita Ovadnevaite added, “The potentially toxic particulate air pollutants, like black carbon, not only affect people’s health but play a significant role in climate change and uncertainty of climate predictions.

“Unfortunately, there is no silver lining in this cloud over human health and climate change until the promotion of solid biomass ?res and the use of ?relighters for ignition is replaced by a co-bene?t policy.”

As per the WHO, air pollution is also the single biggest environmental health risk, causing more than 7 million premature deaths per year worldwide.

Dr. Chunshui Lin, a lead author of the paper said, “This study demonstrates how critical it is to augment regulatory air quality networks with sophisticated instrumentation that can provide information on air pollution sources and can identify the main air pollution culprits and reveal their effects on both air quality and climate.”

Ends