In the period from 2008 to 2018, 52,480 local residents prematurely died from smoke due to forest fires in the state of California.
This conclusion was made by American scientists by investigating the influence of small solid particles (PM2.5) in smoke from fires on people’s health in California, where the risk of forest fires is high. The results are published in the Science Advance scientific journal.
For ten years, due to pollution by solid particles of smoke from forest fires at an early age, from 52 thousand to 55 thousand people died, the authors of the study noted.
The highest level of mortality was marked in the Los Angeles district, where more than 9 thousand people died over the same period due to smoke from forest fires.
Scientists from the University of California (UCLA) emphasized that smoke from forest fires causes many health problems, including breathing and heart problems.
The authors of the study noted the need for long-term measures to reduce the consequences of fires in places where the risk of forest fires due to climate change is the highest, for example, in California, whose population is 39 million people.