Brazil deforestation fires affect millions in Amazon

Fires resulting from unchecked deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest are poisoning the air millions of people breathe, a report released Monday shows.

According to the study carried out by Human Rights Watch, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), and the Institute for Health Policy Studies (IEPS), deforestation in the Amazon and the blazes which followed increased dramatically during 2019, President Jair Bolsonaro's first year in office, and 2020 is already proving to be worse.

The report called "The Air is Unbearable" analyzed data from 2019, crossing official figures from people admitted in hospitals with data on burns and the quality of the air.

It estimates 2,195 people were taken to hospital due to respiratory illness attributable to the 2019 fires.

Almost 500 of these cases involved infants under one year old, and more than 1,000 involved people over age 60.

Brazil Human Rights Watch director Maria Laura Canineu said the deforestation had created a "chronic" public health problem which had been "preventable".

(Image Credit Pixabay)