ASA ruling on a council

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that a digital poster was misleading, as it claimed the use of wood burners and open fires increased particle pollution.

The poster was created by Brighton & Hove City Council and included a graphic of a wood burning stove that was emitting smoke in the shape of an adult and child. Text in the ad stated, ‘Harmful particle pollution near 4 city primary schools was 78% higher last winter compared with last summer […] Wood burners and open fires. The cosy killer’. Smaller text at the bottom of the advertisement stated, ‘City sensor data comparing December 2024 to April 2025 with May 2025 to November 2025 at Middle Street, Elm Grove Primary, Adlington Primary and Saltdean Primary schools’.

In their response, Brighton & Hove City Council said the ad was part of a campaign to raise awareness of the damaging impact of particulate matter (PM) pollution from domestic wood burning. They explained that in Brighton & Hove the dominant contributor to PM2.5 emissions in the area was domestic burning. The monitoring evidence they had gathered strongly indicated episodic increases in outdoor PM2.5 pollution were due to solid fuel burning, rather than other emissions sources.

ASA held that consumers would understand from the ad that particle pollution, had been measured at four primary schools in the Brighton & Hove area across two monitoring periods and that a 78% increase in particle pollution had been observed. They also found that the ad implied that wood burners and open fires were the cause of the increase in particulate pollution the schools. However, as they had not seen evidence to substantiate the claim it was concluded the ad was likely to mislead.