Drax: Health and Environmental Justice Briefing

What is Drax?

• Drax Power Station is the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, emitting 14 million tonnes of CO2 in 2025. From 2013 Drax has emitted 140 million tonnes of CO2.
• Industrial scale woody biomass is just as bad for the planet as burning fossil fuels.
• In 2025 Drax burnt 7.5 million tonnes of wood pellets, much of it from the clear-felling of biodiverse forests in the Southern USA, Canada and Europe, with catastrophic impacts on forests, wildlife, communities and the climate.
• Drax has been repeatedly exposed for sourcing from primary and old-growth forests in Canada; mature, biodiverse hardwood forests within a Global Biodiversity Zone in the Southern US and contributing to forest degradation around the world. 

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Air Pollution 

• Pellet mills emit harmful PM2.5, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to cancer, respiratory and pulmonary issues. 
• Surveys of community members living locally to pellet production sites find that the majority of people living close to pellet mills experience dust every day and that air pollution and dust concerns prevent them from regularly doing things outdoors. The majority (86%) of surveyed households reported at least one family member diagnosed with one or more diseases associated with wood pellet mill pollution. 
• Burning wood in UK power stations releases harmful PM 2.5 particulates, which according to the World Health Organisation, there is no safe level of these particulates for human health. Drax was found to be one of the top five emitters in Europe of PM10 air pollution from power stations, linked to heart and lung diseases.
• The American Lung Association opposes biomass combustion due to health concerns related to combustion. 

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Drax harms workers health

• An investigation by Land & Climate Review found Drax has faced lawsuits from 10 workers in the UK over industrial air pollution, with four ongoing. Claimants' roles varied, including managers who spent time in offices as well as on the site floor. 
• Workers at Drax Power Station were unaware that sustained exposure to wood dust can cause serious health problems, including asthma, dermatitis and nasal cancer.
• Workers have been diagnosed with industrial asthma linked to biomass, hospitalised multiple times and some remain housebound with disabling conditions. 
• Unions report concerns that the full scale of health problems amongst staff may be going unnoticed, as fear of losing work discourages workers from speaking out. 
• Experts involved in these cases state that there can be long delays before symptoms develop, and that ‘we may not yet know the full extent of those affected by past exposure to harmful, biofuel-linked substances such as wood dust.’ 
• Internal company documents show Drax has long been aware of the health risks from wood dust, although internal health and safety material is conflicting and in 2019 stated in a presentation ‘Biomass pellets are not harmful to health.’ At the time of this presentation medical specialists had diagnosed five Drax workers with industrial asthma linked to biomass exposure. 
• Workers report that despite numerous interventions by HSE and some changes, such as more staff wearing FFP3 masks, it’s not enough and staff are still exposed to dangerous wood dust throughout the site. 
• Even after eventually leaving, former workers report improvements of their symptoms but all relying on medications for ongoing health conditions. 

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Environmental Injustice 

• Wood pellet production is twice as likely to be located in ‘environmental justice’ communities, predominantly rural, Black, low-income and politically marginalised communities already disproportionately harmed by polluting industries. 
• In its 2023 Resolutions the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP) called upon environmental organisations to  immediately cease their support of the forest biomass industry on policy proposals and instead to recognise and acknowledge the “environmental racism”, adverse climate change impacts, and forest degradation caused by the industry.
• In Mississippi, the hazardous air pollutants released by Drax into the air above Gloster include methanol, acrolein, and tons of formaldehyde - a chemical that’s carcinogenic, mutagenic and neurodegenerative. 
• A 2024 study on noise pollution in Gloster, Mississippi, found noise levels from the pellet plant approach those of big cities, while residents of Urania report the Drax owned mill seeming loudest at night and in the early morning. Research on the impacts of noise pollution have linked chronic exposure to high blood pressure, heart attacks, anxiety and depression. 
• Forest degradation also destroys natural barriers that mitigate the most severe consequences of weather events; with forest loss leaving communities more vulnerable.

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Legal Violations 

• Drax has violated environmental regulations over 18,000 times since 2014 at its pellet production facilities in the USA, and pellet mills Drax now owns in Canada have breached environmental laws 189 times since Drax began sourcing from them in 2012.
• Gloster residents have filed a federal lawsuit against Drax, alleging the company’s Amite BioEnergy wood pellet facility has unlawfully released toxic pollutants since its 2015 opening, violating the Clean Air Act and Mississippi law.  The plaintiffs report severe health issues such as respiratory problems, cancer, and the need for oxygen tanks, blaming the plant’s emissions of VOCs, formaldehyde, and methanol. 

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Drax cannot be trusted with people's health or our planet and should play no role in our energy generation.