With winter closing in and warm fires becoming more tempting, Horizons Regional Council is reminding the community of the importance of burning good quality, dry firewood.
Burning green, wet and treated wood, as well as other household items including rubbish, plastics, oils and food scraps, can have a detrimental impact on both human health and the environment.
Horizons environmental scientist Harold Barnett says the council hopes to raise awareness of the importance of using good wood through winter with an air quality campaign that kicked off in March and will run until approximately September.
"Air quality in the Horizons Region is generally pretty good when compared to the national picture. However, in some urban areas wood burners used for home heating combined with the local topography can create issues for air quality.
"Burning green, wet or treated wood releases undesirable chemicals, gases and fine particles into the air. This reduces the quality of the air we breathe and can affect human health," Mr Barnett says.