According to experts, EPA restrictions were designed to improve air quality, but fires have reduced or destroyed these improvements.
Wildfires are getting more severe and difficult to control around the world. As a result, according to a recent study, smoke pollution from these extreme wildfires may threaten to erase years of progress in air quality in the United States, as well as having detrimental health repercussions. Between 2000 and 2020, a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health evaluated the impact of wildfires on air quality and human health in the United States. Researchers conducted the investigation.
looked at black carbon concentrations and premature death estimates from satellite data and 500 land-based sites across the country that monitor air quality. While data is generally scarce in rural areas, the researchers used a "deep learning" technique to make accurate predictions and fill in the gaps. They were able to rely on a formula that calculated premature deaths by employing indicators such as average lifespan, black carbon exposure, and population density as a result of this approach.
The scientists concluded that air quality has deteriorated in the Western United States due to an increase in major wildfires over the last decade.
20 years. As a result, they project that between 2000 and 2020, there will be an increase of 670 premature deaths every year. Black carbon concentrations, which have been related to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, have grown by 55% each year as a result of wildfires.
"Our air is supposed to be cleaner and cleaner due to EPA emissions regulations, but the fires have limited or erased these air-quality gains," lead author Jun Wang said in a media statement. "In other words, all the efforts for the past 20 years by the EPA to make our air cleaner basically have been lost in fire-prone areas and downwind regions."
And it is not limited to the West. According to the experts, air quality in the Midwest has also been impacted, but the health consequences are minor. According to the study, there were no significant changes in air quality in the eastern United States.
