Engolindo Fumaça (Inhaling Smoke)

health
environmental
infoamazonia
Beyond global warming: Effects Of wildfires on the health of the Brazilian Amazon population during the Covid-19 pandemic
Published

September 1, 2021

SMOKE IN THE TAPAJÓS NATIONAL FOREST, AMAZON REGION OF PARÁ STATE, SEPTEMBER 2020

Photo: Marizilda Cruppe / Amazônia Real

Inhaling Smoke is a special project that investigates the effects of air pollution caused by wildfires on the health of the Brazilian Amazon population during the pandemic.

In 2020, the tragic combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and one of the most severe cycles of fires and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon meant that residents of fire-affected regions were also more exposed to the risk of Covid-19 worsening. Breathing, especially in municipalities in the states of Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Acre and Amazonas, has become more dangerous.

This toxic synergy was the object of an unprecedented data analysis carried out by a multidisciplinary team of journalists, geographers, statisticians from InfoAmazonia, in partnership with researchers from LabGama, from the Federal University of Acre, and Fiocruz’s Climate and Health Observatory/ICICT. The project was supported by Stanford University through the Big Local News program, which aims to open up data in formats that can be replicated by journalists around the world.

Learn more about this project here.