– There has been a truly dramatic increase in fire smoke from forest fires as air pollution. Our regulations are not designed to handle this. It’s a worrying problem, says Marshall Burke, a researcher at Stanford University The Guardian.
He is co-author of one I study which examines how wildfires have affected air quality in the United States. The results show, among other things, a sharp increase in the number of Americans experiencing unhealthy air quality over the course of a year.
According to the study, the increase in forest fires in the United States is one of the big reasons for this. The increase has meant that the effect of the US “Clean Air Act” is now being whispered, the report said.
DRAMATIC IMAGES: Fires in the western United States in 2020 affected the entire country in the next time, research shows. Here it is burning in Lake Orville, California in September of that year. Photo JOSH EDELSON / AFP / NTB)
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It can be distributed over large distances
The researchers measured the presence of very small particles that are about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. They can travel through the air and penetrate deep into people’s lungs when inhaled.
The smoke from the fires added an average of about five micrograms of these particles to places in the western United States, which is a significant increase from the national level, which is about 10 micrograms from other polluting sources.
The difference between this fire smoke and other air pollution is that it can travel enormous distances, Burke says.
So even a fire in the far west of the United States can affect the air on the other side of the country. This was, among other things, why New York’s air quality was among the worst in the world after all the wildfires in the western United States in the summer of 2020.
The alarm sounds: – Difficult to survive
In general, people who didn’t live near highways or power plants were seen to have had relatively good air quality, but the introduction of fire smoke changed that, according to the study.
– It was truly amazing to see how fast the extreme exposures increased. And there is also evidence that this will increase, Burke warns.
Ten years ago, fewer than 500,000 people in the United States were exposed to days when air quality was considered unhealthy. That is, when the air quality index is 100 or higher due to smoking. Five million Americans now live in areas with such levels at least one day a year.
In 2020 alone, nearly 25 million people in the United States were affected by dangerous smoking.
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Dangerous for health
Such particulate pollution causes more than just short-term discomfort for humans. It has been linked to chronic heart and lung disease, as well as other negative health effects such as cognitive impairment, depression, and premature birth, writes New York Times.
A May study also shows that people who lived within a 50-kilometer radius of a forest fire were 10 percent more likely to get brain tumors and 5 percent more likely to develop lung cancer than they were. people who lived further away.
In previous study shows that bushfire pollution is ten times more dangerous to health than other types of air pollution, writes The New York Times.
SMOKE OFTEN: Smoke from forest fires in France is found near the large city of Bordeaux. Photo: AFP
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Increases the likelihood of forest fires
According to new climate research, scientists also expect there will be more forest fires in the future around the world.
In Europe this summer we have seen heat waves in several countries and strong forest fires in Portugal, Spain and France, among others.
– The likelihood of catastrophic forest fires worldwide will increase by 30% by the end of the century, even if the global warming plan is quickly halted, the latest report says Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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