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We need to get gas boilers, oil-based systems, fireplaces, and chimneys out of Irish homes

They’re expensive to run, terrible for the climate and, as our report shows, they are dangerous

Fossil fuel appliances such as gas and oil-fired boilers are a serious risk to health and safety in our homes. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
Fossil fuel appliances such as gas and oil-fired boilers are a serious risk to health and safety in our homes. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
Conor Purcell
Michael Keary
Tue Oct 15 2024 - 06:00

It is becoming clear that, as well as being a threat to the environment, fossil fuel appliances such as gas and oil-fired boilers are a serious risk to health and safety in our homes, too. The Irish Government, and governments across the European Union (EU), are not doing enough to phase them out.

The danger of these technologies is underemphasised. On average, six people are killed every year in Ireland due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. That’s despite efforts by the National Standards Authority of Ireland to warn citizens about the dangers of carbon monoxide from fossil fuel appliances. Just this April, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission had to issue a recall notice for a series of gas boilers due to risk of fire and explosion.

Replacing these appliances – including gas, oil-based systems, fireplaces, and chimneys – with their modern electrical counterparts – heat pumps, solar PV roof technology, and fully electric ovens – not only helps protect us from the threat of climate change, but makes our homes and workplaces safer.

This is the key conclusion of a report which we co-authored for the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Coolproducts coalition of environmental NGOs, published last week. Our report looks at injuries and fatalities caused by combustion heating and cooking systems – typically accidents involving fires and explosions – and takes a whole EU perspective for the first time. At present, 83 per cent of EU homes rely on fossil fuel and biomass (wood, for example) for heating and cooking. Our research suggests that, each year, domestic appliances using these fuels are responsible for approximately 900 to 1,800 hospital-treated injuries. The total number of fatalities is unknown, but between 2014 and 2019 in Italy – the state for which we have the best data – 207 people died from domestic gas accidents alone. These numbers are almost certainly underestimates as many injuries go unreported.

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Fires and explosions are far from the only threat, however. Accidental carbon monoxide poisoning (which does not include deaths by suicide) is a big killer across Europe. While the situation is bad in Ireland and across western Europe, it is dire in eastern Europe, where it is estimated that the countries Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Russia recorded 5,000-6,000 accidental carbon monoxide related deaths in 2021 alone. This is twenty times higher than the rate in western Europe, and five times the rate in central Europe. Carbon monoxide poisoning from combustion heating and cooking causes accidental deaths in these eastern European countries at the same rate that car accidents do in western Europe.

It appears that the adoption of non-combustion electric heating and cooking appliances would be better for your health too. A 2024 study published in the Lancet found that the use of combustion fuels for heating and cooking contributes significantly to a range of chronic respiratory illnesses and increases the risk of heart disease. With Ireland being one of the countries in western Europe worst affected by asthma, particularly in children, a switch to electric appliances, especially away from gas cooking, ought to be part of an effort to improve the nation’s respiratory health.

Our report did not investigate other losses related to these terrible accidents, such as the economic cost of building destruction and damage, healthcare and hospital costs, costs associated with investigating and reporting accidents, and the cost of implementing annual safety checks. More difficult ramifications to measure include family and generational trauma, which are known to affect rates of depression, addiction and criminality.

Yet the EU continues to fund domestic combustion heating and cooking technologies. In 2022, €3.2 billion of European taxpayers’ money was allocated to fossil fuel heating subsidies by national governments. According to the findings of our report, this money supports domestic combustion systems that pose significant public health risks, in effect financing future injuries and fatalities.

EU citizens generally understand that to heat with oil and coal, or cook with gas is to contribute to climate change, but they should also know of the serious risks to their health and safety. Legislation to support safe green electric heating and cooking should be prioritised. Safe solutions should focus on domestic solar and heat pump technologies, and not hydrogen which is often proposed but would likely worsen the situation because it is more volatile, explosive, and prone to leaks. These positive changes to safety in our homes can be made by leveraging Europe’s Social Climate Fund to support mid to low income households who might struggle with upfront costs. This will not only help fulfil Europe and Ireland’s climate change carbon commitments, but also offer safer homes and workplaces too.

Dr Conor Purcell & Dr Michael Keary are the co-directors of NovaAura Research, a Dublin-Brussels based climate consultancy helping NGOs understand and prepare for the green transition.