During 2008, discussions about air quality in the UK have been dominated by one subject - biomass. No air quality conference, workshop or regional event has been complete without a session providing an update on the biomass situation, with attendance at such meetings up significantly such is the desire of air quality practitioners to hear the latest on biomass. Put simply, after many years of steadily diminishing emissions from vehicle and static sources, air quality practitioners are concerned that biomass will introduce a significant new source of air pollution in towns and cities across the UK.rnAir quality problems caused by wood burning (the most popular form of biomass) are of course nothing new. Several Scandinavian countries suffer air quality problems caused by domestic wood burning. In the USA, domestic wood burning in rural areas emits 420,000 tons of PM_(2.5) each year~* prompting the US Environmental Protection Agency to initiate a successful programme to replace old, inefficient wood stoves. Wood heating is, however, far less popular in the UK, and in our towns and cities domestic heating is almost entirely accomplished using natural gas and electricity.
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