Brazilians choke as fire smoke blankets 80pc of country

BRASALIA: With as much as 80 percent of Brazil under a blanket of smoke from historic wild fires, face masks last used during the coronavirus pandemic are coming out again.

South America´s biggest country has for weeks been choking on pollution along with much of the rest of the continent battling extreme drought and record fires. Millions of hectares of forest and farmland have burnt in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.

The Amazon basin, usually one of the wettest places on Earth, is experiencing its worst fires in nearly two decades, according to the EU´s Copernicus observatory. And last week, satellite images from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), showed 80 percent of Brazil affected by smoke.

“I am a smoker but I´ve been coughing more than usual,” student Luan Monteiro, 20, told AFP in the port of Rio de Janeiro. Indeed, experts say that inhaling smoke from the fires has effects comparable to smoking four or five cigarettes a day.

Air pollution can worsen bronchitis and asthma, and the risk is greater the longer the exposure, according to pediatrician Renato Kfouri, vice president of the Brazilian Immunizations Society.