For vulnerable Mosgiel people, staying warm and safe during the winter cold is just as important as improving air quality.
That is the view of Otago Regional Council environmental monitoring and operations director Jeff Donaldson.
Asked about air pollution and the human impact of cold winter conditions in Mosgiel this winter, Mr Donaldson said that winter cold was clearly damaging to health.
Because of the relatively good overall air quality, Mosgiel residents are not required to upgrade to more clean-burning fires and other heating systems.
Mr Donaldson said they clearly faced cold conditions in the winter and a key priority was for people to keep warm and safe.
But the ORC also wanted to encourage Mosgiel residents to be more aware of how they could be good neighbours and citizens by using their fires and fuel burners more efficiently, and generating much less smoke.
ORC officials said excessive pollution was clearly harmful for young and old people, particularly if they had asthma.
Mr Donaldson said the ORC's focus on education about how to use wood burners properly would continue, and urged residents to use dry wood and not to bank up their fires at night.
Some people loaded up their fires and turned the damper down low at night, which generated a considerable amount of smoke.
Burning damp wood, and burning coal instead of wood also generated excessive smoke.
Mosgiel usually exceeds air quality standards four to nine times a year, and four ''exceedances'' have already occurred this year, compared with four for all of last year, ORC officials said.
This year's air quality breaches were on May 4, May 30 and June 1 and June 2, mostly ranging between 51 to 62 units of pollution per cubic metre, with by far the highest level recorded on June 1 - 93 units per cubic metre.
In 2009, there were nine exceedances in Mosgiel, the highest number recorded.
Highest one-day pollution values there have ranged anywhere from 62 in 2013 to 103 in 2010, ORC officials said.
A combination of cold and still conditions were crucial for air quality, and often even in cold conditions, wind blew the pollution away, ORC officials said.
The ORC has acknowledged that it is impossible to reach national air quality standards in Central Otago, and is seeking a review of this.
The Ministry for the Environment has said it will undertake the review.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, said in March air quality regulations should be reviewed, with less concern about ''spikes'' in air pollution on still winter days.
