Burning green: Health costs of landscape fires

The cascading effects of forest fires and stubble burning on human health and environment are severe

- K Srinath Reddy

A recent report in The Lancet estimated that, globally, around 1.53 million excess deaths occurred each year during 2000-19 due to smoke from "landscape fires," a term for forest fires and dry vegetation, including planned farm fires. The study correlated deaths to exposure to particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and ozone. Cardiovascular deaths contributed 0.45 million and respiratory diseases 0.22 million to this annual toll of where life was snuffed out by the "burning green".

Forest fires have been in the news over the past few years. They attained notoriety for devastating vast tracts of land in North America and Europe, destroying homes and businesses, and displacing thousands of people. The Canadian wildfires of 2023 broke records and involved all 13 provinces and territories. As smoke from Canada wafted across the border into the US, people living in upper midwestern states realized that neither walls nor tariffs by presidential decree could keep their health and economy protected from wildfires raging in their neighbors' forests. The smoke from Canada even reached Europe. California, of course, has its annual ordeal by forest fire, with high levels of damage and displacement. As of November 25, 2024, a total of 7,818 wildfires have burnt down 1,044,126 acres in the American state this year. In Greece, the wildfires of August 2024 scorched 100,000 acres of land.