2023-04-27 07:09:09
An American study reveals that air quality is deeply impacted during forest fires, with significant levels of methane.
In France but also all over the world, episodes of drought are increasing. Because of this global warming, there are more and more forest fires every year. If they can be of criminal origin, too dry pine forests now generate significant outbreaks of fire.
However, these fires have several negative effects. They are difficult for firefighters to control, they ravage hectares of nature and they harm our health. However, this last point is often overlooked. To determine the real impact of forest fires on health, researchers from the University of California looked into the question. Their work was detailed in an article published on EurekAlert.
Forest fires emanating 7 times more harmful gases than 20 years ago
Thanks to a new technological tool, they were able to detect the gases emitted during the large fires that ravaged the region. In fact, for several years now, the American state has fallen prey to the flames every year. For this study, these are two clouds of smoke from 2020 fires that have been analyzed.
Then they noted the quantities of each gas emitted during the fires. But the most worrying result concerns methane. A colorless and odorless gas, it is partly responsible for global warming. In addition, the researchers knew that the fires released a lot of methane. Nevertheless, they did not expect such figures.
They estimated the amount of methane on these mega-wildfires was regarding 20,000 tons. For comparison, this is equivalent to the weight of 20,000 elephants. Researchers are therefore concerned regarding this situation, both in environmental and health terms.
Risk of short-term asphyxiation due to methane released into the atmosphere
In France, it is difficult to perform such measurements. However, the forest fires ravaging the country have not yet reached the magnitude of the American fires. However, that does not mean that they are harmless. Indeed, methane can affect our health in the short and long term.
In the short term, it causes attacks of asphyxia because it is mixed with the oxygen breathed in. But it is in the long term that its effects are the most harmful. Indeed, this gas contributes to the change of ecosystems, to the rising temperatures and melting glaciers.
The researchers therefore wish to raise awareness and increase prevention in order to reduce fire episodes.
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