
"I was surprised at our estimate being so high when you consider that the exposure to fire smoke is quite intermittent for most people," said lead author Fay Johnston of the University of Tasmania. "Even in southeast Asia and Africa, (fire) is a seasonal phenomenon. It is not year round," Johnston said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Vancouver where she presented her research.
The study, which Johnston said was the first of its kind to attempt to estimate a death toll from wildfires and landscape burns, was published Saturday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers looked at the number of deaths from all causes in areas that were exposed to heavy smoke and landscape fire between 1997 and 2006.
They used satellite data and chemical transport models to assess the health impacts of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, a major byproduct of landscape fire smoke. The number of deaths from wildfires came in far below the previously estimated global tolls for indoor air pollution at two million people per year and urban air pollution at 800,000.
However, the study authors said their findings indicated that "fire emissions are an important contributor to global mortality."...
Controlled burn in Jedenspeigen, Lower Austria, shot by Doronenko, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
1 comment:
According to WHO recent research air pollution is changing our environment and undermining many disadvantages such as wild lands, water purity, air quality, food production, and climate stability etc. Environment pollution is a firing issue in the world which requires to be discussing by all nation for the sake of human beings. PALS a new invention of Suzlon is working for preventing Environment pollution. Join PALS and support for Environment clean. For more details visit: www.pals.in
Post a Comment