Defra’s Wildfire Policies are Putting Public Health at Risk: our letter to The Telegraph

SIR – Last year, wildfires emitted more harmful fine particles (PM2.5) than households burning wood indoors (“Labour to impose health warnings on wood burners”, March 15).

So, if Defra is serious about saving the NHS millions by reducing air pollution, why is it pursuing wildfire policies that risk making it worse? Defra has effectively shut down moorland heather burning in England, despite its established role around the world in reducing vegetation fuel loads available to wildfire.

Instead, unlike Scotland, it has placed its faith in rewetting. Yet one of the authors of the Natural England report behind that approach said last week that rewetting does not address wildfire risk.

If Defra accepts that wildfires are an increasing threat, it should explain why it is abandoning fuel-load management measures used elsewhere in the world, while putting people’s health and the NHS budget at greater risk. Andrew Gilruth Chief Executive Moorland Association

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