El Nino and health risks from landscape fire emissions in Southeast Asia.

ABSTRACT: Emissions from landscape fires affect both climate and air quality¹. In this study, we combine satellite-derived fire estimates and atmospheric modeling to quantify health effects from fire emissions in Southeast Asia from 1997 to 2006. This region has large interannual variability in fire activity due to coupling between El Niño-induced droughts and anthropogenic land use change^2,3. We show that during strong El Niño years, fires contribute up to 200 μg/m³ and 50 ppb in annual average fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃) surface concentrations near fire sources, respectively. This corresponds to a fire contribution of 200 additional days per year that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) 50 μg/m³ 24-hour PM<

SUBMITTER: Marlier ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219417 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature