The scent of wood smoke on a frosty day is one of the joys of winter.

It is what makes Tuscan hill towns so charming, the spirits lifting at the thought of a log fire crackling inside a farmhouse, its smoke scribbling on the cold blue sky.

For many of us who have a wood burner, it was probably its romantic association with a rustic idyll that persuaded us to buy it, even more than the heat it produces or its mesmerising flames.

After all, what could be more welcoming to come home to in the depths of January than a stack of fragrant logs by the hearth and a roaring blaze that banishes the chill?

According to a growing body of research, however, wood burners are not all they appear.

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Real fires, it seems, are the largest source of harmful small particulate matter air pollution in the UK, and recent publicity by the Clean Air Campaign seeks to highlight the health problems they can cause.

Even the most eco-friendly stoves, apparently, create three times as much pollution within the home as is found in a house without one.

Worst of all, the toxins they produce are especially harmful to children, who breathe faster and absorb more, relative to their size. Since youngsters’ organs are still developing, the danger to them from air pollution is that much greater.

When I think back to childhood, our house was heated entirely by coal fires. After we got central heating we kept a log fire, which my father tended as attentively as if it was another child.

The........

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