Mr. Tim Collins:

New houses are increasingly hermetically sealed, and we are not dealing with the same environment as in older houses. First, we would go back to basics and say that if someone suffers from asthma, it is not a great idea to have an open fire in the house. It is not even a great idea to have a wood-burning stove in the house, because every time a stove is opened to refuel it, it emits particulates and they can impact on the health of someone who has asthma. As we emphasised earlier, it has a much broader health impact as well in terms of cardiovascular disease.

We would say to people to move away from burning fuel in their house indoors. Over and above that, people with asthma need to make sure that they have a good relationship with their GP and that they are regularly monitored, and their asthma is controlled. Asthma is not only an inconvenient disease; it can be a fatal one and it is something that needs to be properly monitored and controlled by a GP.