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A research team in Athens, Greece, found that a specific type of highly dangerous air pollution increases dangerously during winter.

The pollutant was identified to result from biomass burning, as people turned to wood burning stoves for heat.

Within a class of carcinogenic particles called PAHs, 43 percent of the annual cancer cases of air pollution are caused by these biomass burners.

The results have been made fully available in the journal of atmospheric chemistry and physics.

The PAHs examined in the study stand for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

They are released from burning a wide variety of fuels, including coal, oil, gas and tobacco.

The ones with a greater risk of causing cancer are those released from wood burning.

Some of them have commercial or industrial uses, such as naphthalene, which is used in moth repellents.

The researchers measured air pollution levels across the city of Athens every day for a year.

Large amounts of the air pollutant toxins were found to be produced locally.

During summer, the contribution of air pollution from outside was seen to increase.

The overall contribution of external sources of air pollution was measured to average seven percent across the year.

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The researchers have called for immediate action to reduce the number of people burning wood within their homes.

Wood burning stoves often have poor airflow that causes incomplete combustion of the fuel.

This releases a greater number of dangerous chemicals in a small area, such as carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that has no colour, taste or smell.

Biomass burning does not exclusively include wood burning stoves, although wood burning was the main reason identified in this study.

It can also be used for the disposal of agricultural and garden waste.

Waste incinerators can produce PAHs, alongside carbon monoxide, soot and other harmful chemicals.

The amount of pollution can be reduced by advances in engineering, however even well designed incinerators and wood stoves will produce large amounts of pollution.

The phasing out of wood burning stoves was recommended by the UN as a measure to keep global temperature rises from surpassing 1.5ºC.

Wood burning releases carbon dioxide, and methane, two greenhouse gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and increase global temperatures.

Soot – another product of wood burning – accumulates on the poles and interferes with the ability of snow and ice to reflect sunlight.

A 2016 report by the Canadian government revealed that residential wood burning was the largest source of black carbon, producing 27 percent of the annual total.

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