By IANS,
Sydney : Smoke from landscape fires caused the deaths of more than 3.3 million people worldwide between 1997 and 2006, according to a new study.
The hardest hit were Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated annual average of 110,000 and 157,000 deaths, respectively, said Fay Johnston, from Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania.
“It’s time to look at deforestation impact on fires, which in turn affect human health,” said Johnston, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reports.
Johnston and her co-authors specifically assessed the health impacts of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, an important byproduct of landscape fire smoke, according to a statement of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
First, they looked at satellite data to gather information on areas that burned each year during the study period. They further calculated annual mortality during a La Nina period, and an El Nino period.
Worldwide, deaths from fire smoke during those periods were estimated at 262,000 and 532,000, respectively, compared with an estimated 10-year global yearly average of 339,000 deaths.
“Fire emissions are an important contributor to global mortality,” said Johnston. “Adverse health outcomes associated with landscape fire smoke could be substantially reduced by curtailing burning of tropical rainforests, which rarely burn naturally.”
These findings were presented at the 2012 AAAS annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada on Sunday.