PARIS, NOV 29 – Air pollution caused by fires is linked to more than 1.5 million deaths a year worldwide, most of them in developing countries, according to a new study yesterday.
The death toll is expected to rise as climate change causes more frequent forest fires, according to a study in the journal The Lancet.
An international team of researchers looked at existing data on ‘landscape fires’ which include natural and planned forest fires such as controlled burning on agricultural land.
Researchers say about 450,000 deaths a year from heart disease are linked to fire-related air pollution between 2000 and 2019.
An additional 220,000 deaths from respiratory disease are linked to smoke and airborne particles during fires.
According to the study, of all causes worldwide, 1.53 million annual deaths are linked to air pollution from landscape fires.
More than 90 percent of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, with nearly 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
The countries with the highest number of deaths are China, Congo, India, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Increasing illegal plantation burning activity in northern India is partly to blame for the noxious smog that has engulfed New Delhi recently.
Author of the study Lancet calls for ‘urgent action’ to tackle huge death toll from landscape fires. – AFP