Smog: wood stoves should be off

The Flemish Environment Agency calls on the population not to burn wood in stoves or fireplaces on Wednesday and Thursday.

Both days there is already a lot of fine dust in the air. This can increase enormously due to wood combustion, according to the VMM.

Harmful substances such as fine dust, dioxins and PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are released from the fireplace. Those substances are bad for health.

'If people are burning anyway, we recommend using only dry and untreated wood,' Het Nieuwsblad writes.