More than 3,000 deaths in Indonesia linked to fire pollution, report says
Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in September, according to a new study.
A new report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) suggests that more than 3,000 deaths in Indonesia in September were linked to fire pollution, marking a twofold increase from the previous month. The report attributes the worsening air quality to forest and land fires in Indonesia, with the estimated death toll reaching 3,560 cases.
The pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across the country forced an estimated 57.8 million people to breathe unhealthy-to-hazardous air. The study also found that non-fire pollution from urban power generation, industry, and transportation caused an additional 1,750 deaths in September, bringing the total to 5,310 deaths in the country of about 290 million people.
The researchers noted that exposure levels breached the WHO annual PM2.5 threshold by over seven times nationally, 10 times in Sumatra, and 24 times in Kalimantan in Borneo.
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