Particulate matter in the lungs Climate change favors forest fires and harms health
Global warming is causing more forest fires worldwide - and the associated air pollution is threatening the health of more and more people.
21.10.2024, 23:38
SDA
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- In recent decades, climate change has led to more areas being burnt by forest fires.
- The fires also produce smoke and thus particulate matter, which can get deep into the lungs.
- This means that climate change is increasingly posing a threat to public health, according to two new studies.
According to a study published in the journal "Nature Climate Change", in which the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich was also involved, climate change has led to more burnt areas in recent decades.
From 2003 to 2019, almost 16 percent more forest burned compared to a scenario without climate change, writes the team led by Seppe Lampe from the Free University of Brussels. According to the researchers, Australia, South America, western North America and Siberia were particularly affected.
Overall, the area burned decreased by 19 percent during this period. However, this is due to the fact that more and more forest areas were used for agriculture or other purposes. As a result, there are fewer areas that could burn.
However, according to the study, global warming is causing particularly large areas to burn where fires are occurring. Although heat and drought alone do not trigger fires, they make forests more susceptible to them and also ensure that the fires tend to be more severe.
"Our study shows that once fires occur, the impact of climate change becomes more significant with drier and warmer weather conditions," co-author Chantelle Burton from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter is quoted as saying in a press release on the study.
More fires, more air pollution
In a second study in the same journal, a group led by Chae Yeon Park from the Japanese National Institute of Industrial and Science Technology in Tsukuba investigated how such fires damage health. This is because fires also produce smoke and thus fine dust, which can penetrate deep into the lungs. According to the study, the number of deaths caused by fire-related air pollution worldwide rose from around 46,400 per year in the 1960s to around 98,750 in the 2010s.
Based on the results of the first study, in the 2010s more than 12,500 deaths per year due to air pollution caused by fires were attributed to climate change. In the 1960s, this figure was around 670 deaths per year, the group calculates. Regions such as South America, Australia and Europe were particularly affected.
"Our research makes it clear that climate change is increasingly a threat to public health, as smoke is also affecting densely populated areas more frequently," explains lead author Park.
Humidity is rising in some regions
However, the study also mentions exceptions to the trend: in some regions, such as South Asia, a climate change-induced increase in humidity led to fewer deaths from fires.
The analysis is an epidemiological study. Epidemiological studies determine the statistical relationship between risk factors such as particulate matter pollution and health effects such as cardiovascular diseases.
Such studies show correlations, not causalities, so they do not necessarily say anything about causal relationships. The result is a statistical estimate, not an exact indication of clinically identified deaths. The actual value may be higher or lower.