Fire effects measured
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Air pollution from fires has been linked to 1.5 million annual deaths worldwide.
A recent study published in The Lancet has revealed that air pollution resulting from landscape fires contributes to a huge number of deaths globally each year.
This significant health burden is largely borne by low- and middle-income countries, which account for over 90 per cent of these fatalities.
Landscape fires, including wildfires and planned burns in natural and cultural areas, are a dual threat.
While the immediate risk of death from the fires themselves is clear, the air pollution generated by these events has far-reaching health impacts too, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
The study, the largest of its kind, examined data from 2000 to 2019.
It identified air pollution as a major contributor to cardiovascular-related deaths, which constituted about 450,000 fatalities annually. Respiratory diseases accounted for an additional 220,000 deaths each year.
The researchers used a sophisticated health impact assessment model, incorporating data on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and surface ozone (O3) emissions, population demographics, and mortality rates from the Global Burden of Diseases Study.
They found that 77.6 per cent of the attributable deaths were linked to PM2.5, while O3 accounted for the remainder.
Sub-Saharan Africa experienced the highest annual death toll from landscape fire pollution, with over 606,000 deaths recorded. Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia also reported significant fatalities, amounting to hundreds of thousands annually.
In contrast, high-income countries reported substantially lower mortality rates, though they did experience an increase in deaths over the two decades studied.
The authors of the study - which was funded by the Australian Research Council, and Australian National Health and Medical Research Council - stressed the urgent need for measures to address the health and environmental impacts of landscape fires.
They called for stronger climate change mitigation and adaptation policies to curb the frequency and intensity of these fires.
Additionally, they urged high-income countries to support vulnerable nations through financial aid, technological transfer, and policy guidance.
“Addressing this issue requires global collaboration,” the study concluded, pointing to the interconnected challenges of public health, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic inequity.
