Storage Heaters and Asthma - Are the claims true?

Apodemus

[Deleted User] said:

nachtvlinders said:

Apparently, they're meant to be bad for asthma sufferers. 

The Operating Manual for the Dimplex XLS24N says:-

"IMPORTANT - Due to the newness of the materials the heater will produce a slight smell for the first few days of operation.

ROOMS MUST BE WELL VENTILATED AND YOUNG CHILDREN, CAGED BIRDS OR PERSONS WITH RESPIRATORY COMPLAINTS MUST NOT REMAIN IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE HEATER DURING THE FIRST 48 HOURS OF THE COMMISSIONING PERIOD"

No doubt these particular NSHs were 'commissioned' (i.e. set to max. for 48 hours) long ago - but perhaps it was something like this that started the rumour?

The same manual points out that you need a shelf above a NSH, if you don't want it to circulate 'environmental impurities' in the air, such as soot from candles...

(I know nothing about Asthma)

I'm guessing that the convection currents set up by normal central heating radiators are also fairly efficient at circulating "environmental impurities", but they tend not to come with a butt-covering manual!

HampshireH

It amazes me that someone in such urgent need of housing can turn down a valid offer with such a shrug of the shoulders and expect to be offered something else. You could literally say every heating type is a risk to health one way or another if you are inclined to believe everything written on the internet.

In many areas temporary accommodation is a take it or leave it option and are direct matched by the Council. So if declined the Council can say they have carried out their duty & take them off the list. So it would seem you're lucky to live somewhere she gets the choice. How many does she get?

Around here for permanent housing they go on to offer 3 times I believe.

I would suggest your service user doesn't see the need to be housed in quite the same way as those supporting them. 

Hopefully they change their mind 

Edit; just reread your post and see you say "turned down" and then "didn't apply" so presume it isn't temporary accommodation but indeed permanent via a choice based lettings system? But she wouldn't have been able to turn it down if she didn't apply.

pearl123

pochase said:

Dust in itself is a risk for asthma sufferers, no matter what type of heating.

I'm an asthmatic. Triggers are numerous for asthma suffers, including cold air. I had storage heaters in a home I lived in. No issues. 

EssexHebridean

I think this really goes to show the power of scaremongering. While the majority of people who look at a claim like “storage heaters produce Carbon Monoxide”, will assess it, realise that realistically there is no way that can be in any way likely - or even possible, there will always be a handful who will either believe the claim outright “because it seemed right and carbon monoxide kills people!” Or at the least will let it lodge in their heads as an uncertainty. Often those people may be among the most vulnerable - the ones the theories and scaremongering can be most damaging for. 

We have recently seen the effects of this on the subject of smart meters with a former forumite who arrived here with an agenda, and a lot of dubious theories. Among other things that person claimed that smart metering was all about control - that “they” wanted to take control of our energy supplies so “they” could disconnect any individual at any time for any reason, that smart meters were far less likely to be reliable, and that people should still be allowed to freely burn whatever they liked in their homes because “it isn’t harmful”, and that the big London smog in 1952 didn’t kill anyone. In support of some of her claims she produced “evidence” in the way of poorly researched articles from among others the Daily Mail and the BBC - outlets that many blindly see as “credible” without looking deeper. As a result, although that poster has departed, we have now seen others following her lead - making similar claims with no evidence to back them up, and posting items from the media labelled as “credible” or reliable sources again, without considering that they may not in fact be correct, or be designed to put a certain spin on a subject while avoiding entitling key facts.  This is the danger of misinformation - particularly when it is used to back up a different agenda entirely. 

We could speculate all day on other possible reasons OP’s service user declined the property in question - maybe it was really that they feared the running cost of storage heaters - another oft-repeated claim and not always true. Maybe it was further away from family and friends than they wanted, or perhaps there was something else they disliked about it. Just maybe though, they genuinely HAD seen some of the various claims that we have seen have been made - and was genuinely made fearful as a result. If so, fearmongering and “fake news” are responsible for them not having a more permanent roof over their heads.

matelodave

I dont need any education about Asthma, thanks.

I had it when I was younger and am still susceptible to chest problems. My wife has always had it and has been really ill on several occasions and my daughter has ended up in hospital with it and was on steroids and inhalers before she was a year old.

So I do understand what its like and what can trigger it. I've also got a friend who's 13 year old daughter died during an asthma attack.

All that said , I still dont' believe that a storage heater is any more liable to produce an asthma attack than a normal radiator.

EssexHebridean

Storage heaters - once commissioned, do not have a "stronger smell when they turn on" at all - that's simply incorrect. If anyone reading has NSH's which produce a smell whilst charging, or in use, beyond perhaps the slightest smell of dust burning off on the first occasion they are switched on again after being off all summer, then I'd strongly suggest that you switch them off immediately and call in an expert to investigate further - as it may be that something has dropped inside the heater and could now be causing a fire risk. A suggestion that a smell while in regular use is in any way standard is not only wrong, but could cost lives. 

diystarter7

pearl123 said:

pochase said:

Dust in itself is a risk for asthma sufferers, no matter what type of heating.

I'm an asthmatic. Triggers are numerous for asthma suffers, including cold air. I had storage heaters in a home I lived in. No issues. 

Hi

Your post proves that everyone is different and have different trigger scales from different scenarios. What effects you may not affect another and vice versa and sadly many people do not realise that fact. It's never one hat fits all.

All heaters smell to an extent when first turned on inc CH heaters and storage heaters. 

I have an over-sensitive smell sense my family tells me and I can smell anything and everything and thankfully not asthmatic but appreciate sufferers and their impacts which many others can dismiss but is real enough at times to trigger an attack.

Thank you