{"id":424551,"date":"2024-11-28T19:02:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T19:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=424551"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Air-pollution-from-fires-linked-to-1-5-million-deaths-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Air-pollution-from-fires-linked-to-1-5-million-deaths-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution from fires linked to 1.5 million deaths a year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air pollution caused by fires is linked to more than 1.5 million deaths a year worldwide, the vast majority occurring in developing countries, a major new study said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

This death toll is expected to rise in the coming years as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense, according to the study in The Lancet journal.<\/p>\n

The international team of researchers looked at existing data on “landscape fires”, which include both wildfires that rage through nature and planned fires such as controlled burns on farming land.<\/p>\n

Around 450,000 deaths a year from heart disease were linked to fire-related air pollution between 2000 and 2019, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

A further 220,000 deaths from respiratory disease were attributed to the smoke and particulates spewed into the air by fire.<\/p>\n

From all causes around the world, a total of 1.53 million annual deaths were associated with air pollution from landscape fires, according to the study.<\/p>\n

More than 90 percent of these deaths were in low and middle-income countries, it added, with nearly 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The countries with the highest death tolls were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.<\/p>\n

A record amount of illegal burning of farm fields in northern India has been partly blamed for noxious smog that has recently been choking the capital New Delhi.<\/p>\n

The authors of the Lancet study called for “urgent action” to address the huge death toll from landscape fires.<\/p>\n

The disparity between rich and poor nations further highlights “climate injustice”, in which those who have contributed the least to global warming suffer from it the most, they added.<\/p>\n

Some of the ways people can avoid smoke from fires — such as moving away from the area, using air purifiers and masks, or staying indoors — are not available to people in poorer countries, the researchers pointed out.<\/p>\n

So they called for more financial and technological support for people in the hardest-hit countries.<\/p>\n

The study was released a week after UN climate talks where delegates agreed to a boost in climate funding that developing countries slammed as insufficient.<\/p>\n

It also came after Ecuador declared a national emergency over forest fires that have razed more than 10,000 hectares in the country’s south.<\/p>\n

The world has also been battered by hurricanes, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events during what is expected to be the hottest year in recorded history.<\/p>\n

dl\/bc<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The study was released a week after Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires<\/p>\n

-Galo Paguay
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