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Study: Fires bring health impacts that last up to 10 years

2025-08-13 20:13:00, Shëndeti CNA

Study: Fires bring health impacts that last up to 10 years

Countries in Europe face difficult fire situations every year.

What causes fires?

Many factors can cause a fire: natural causes, such as lightning; damaged infrastructure, such as downed power lines; or reckless human behavior.

Devastating fires in recent years have been sparked by smokers who threw away lit cigarettes, tourists who failed to properly extinguish campfires, and even by arsonists who deliberately set nature ablaze.

Study: Fires bring health impacts that last up to 10 years

Hundreds of people die from fires every year

Wildfires directly kill hundreds of people every year around the world. While they may seem apocalyptic, the death toll is far smaller than floods, which kill thousands, and heatwaves, which kill hundreds of thousands. However, when smoke is factored in, the human cost increases significantly. According to the latest study, air pollution caused by wildfires kills an estimated 1.5 million people a year.

Health impacts, even decades later

In addition to the immediate consequences and environmental footprint, exposure to a large-scale disaster affects people's health even more than a decade later, say researchers from the United States and Indonesia.

Study: Fires bring health impacts that last up to 10 years

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on women living on the coast of Aceh province, Indonesia, when it was hit by the 2004 tsunami. The results showed that 14 years later, these women had lower cortisol levels than women from nearby coastal communities that were not directly affected.

For the study, scientists analyzed hair samples from participants 14 years after the disaster.

"An important finding is that people with low cortisol levels have worse physical and psychosocial health 14 years after the tsunami. This is evidence of the long-term effects of stress and its consequences," says Princeton University professor Duncan Thomas, one of the study leaders. /CNA





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