Haze from forest fires and deliberate burning of peat lands in Indonesia may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths in Southeast Asia.
In the study to be published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the United States have quantified the public health effects caused by forest fires and the burning of peat lands for forestry and agriculture in Southeast Asia.
It is estimated that the deaths due to haze in three nations in particular - Indonesia and its neighboring countries Singapore and Malaysia - could range between 26,300 and 174,300, with an average of 100,300. According to estimates, respiratory illness and other health issues caused by exposure account for 2,200 deaths in Singapore, 6,500 in Malaysia and 91,600 in Indonesia.
Indonesia has officially reported only 19 deaths related to the forest fires and respiratory illness. This number already includes the firefighters who died in the line of duty. However, in October 2015 the country's disaster management agency reported that about 43 million people in the country have been exposed to smoke and at least half the population have suffered acute respiratory diseases, noted the New York Times.
The study, on the other hand, included only adults that were affected by the haze and considered only PM 2.5, the fine particulate matter that could result in health issues in humans. In reality, other than PM 2.5, many toxins are released during forest fires and the burning of peat lands, all of which are potential threats to people.
It is reported that about 261,000 hectares of land were burned from July through October 2015 in the Indonesian part of Borneo and southern Sumatra. While a part of the burning may be blamed on forest fire, the rest is due to the locals setting fields ablaze to prepare these for agriculture.
Meanwhile, Rajasekhar Bala, an environmental engineering expert at the National University of Singapore, who reviewed the study for the Associated Press, said that air pollution caused especially by fine particulate matter has serious implications on human health. Though the study is in the preliminary stage, the warning should be considered as a "wake up call" for Indonesians to control the burning of peat lands and forest fires.
"Particles penetrate indoors, and housing in Indonesia is very well ventilated, so I don't think there is any avertive behavior that people there could have taken that would have been effective," said Joel Schwartz, an air pollution epidemiologist at Harvard who co-authored the study.
This is in contrast to the situation in Singapore, where people can limit their exposure to haze by closing all the windows and staying inside air-conditioned rooms, said Schwartz.
