With as much as 80 percent of Brazil under a blanket of smoke from historic forest fires, the face masks last used during the coronavirus pandemic are making a comeback.
South America’s largest country has been struggling with pollution for weeks, while much of the rest of the continent is struggling with extreme drought and record fires.
Millions of hectares of forest and farmland have been burned in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.
The Amazon basin, typically one of the wettest places on Earth, is experiencing its worst fires in almost two decades, according to the EU’s Copernicus Observatory.
And last week, satellite images from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) showed that 80 percent of Brazil was affected by smoke.
“I am a smoker, but I cough more than usual,” student Luan Monteiro, 20, told AFP at the port of Rio de Janeiro.
Experts say inhaling smoke from the fires has similar effects to smoking four or five cigarettes a day.
Air pollution can worsen bronchitis and asthma, and the risk is greater the longer exposure, said pediatrician Renato Kfouri, vice president of the Brazilian Immunizations Society.
In one of the largest hospitals in the capital Brasilia, the number of patients treated for respiratory problems in recent days was more than twenty times higher than normal.
– ‘I put on my mask’ –
In Brasilia, where no rain has fallen for 160 days, housewife Valderes Loyola said she bought a fan that she uses to blow over wet towels and buckets of water to try to add some moisture to the dry air.
“When I go outside, I put on my mask,” the 72-year-old told AFP.
Sao Paulo, Latin America’s largest metropolis, was ranked as the most polluted city in the world for several days last week by Swiss measurement agency IQAir.
According to pollsters Datafolha, at least 40 percent of residents in Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, and 29 percent in Rio de Janeiro, say their health has been “very strongly” affected by pollution.
Internet searches for “air quality” reached record levels in Brazil in recent days, according to the Google Trends tool, which also reported an increase in searches for “humidifier” and “air purifier.”
Experts warn of outdated air quality monitoring in Brazil and a lack of contingency plans to tackle smoke pollution.
Less than 2.0 percent of municipalities have air monitoring stations, Evangelina Araujo of the pollution think tank Instituto Ar told AFP.
And only one in five can detect the fine particles in smoke that would trigger health warnings.
Authorities blame human activity for most of the recent fires in Brazil, where they are often linked to land clearing for agriculture.
Neighboring Bolivia declared a national disaster on Monday over forest fires that have hit most of Santa Cruz department, where authorities say 7.2 million hectares have burned since last week.
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