Brazil drowns in smoke from fires and pollution

“Although I am a smoker, I cough more than usual,” says worried student Luan Monteiro in the port of Rio de Janeiro, which like many Brazilian cities has been living with pollution spikes for weeks, due to the wave of fires in the country.

In the midst of an extreme drought linked to climate change Brazil suffers the effects of a multiplication of fires from north to south. Clouds of smoke cover a good part of the territory of the largest country in Latin America – “up to 80%” last week – according to Karla Longo, researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

“The sky looks horrible. The sun doesn’t look good anymore, it’s very blurry. Normally the air here is not so dry, because we are close to the port and that is refreshing. But now it is drier than normal,” Monteiro, 20, told AFP.

São Paulo, the largest Latin American metropolis, climbed to the top of the ranking of the most polluted cities in the world for several days, according to the air quality monitoring company IQAir, based in Switzerland.

The masks were seen again, especially in Porto Velho and other cities in the Amazon, which is experiencing its worst wave of fires in almost two decades, according to the European Copernicus observatory.

“On the flight from San Pablo to Rio I could see the problem. When I looked out the window, there was a lot of black smoke. It’s really impressive“, says Celso Quijada, a 36-year-old administrator from São Paulo, on a visit to the “Cidade Maravilhosa” on Copacabana beach.

At least 40% of the inhabitants of San Pablo and Belo Horizontethe capital of the state of Minas Gerais, and 29% of Rio de Janeiro say that their health was “very” affected by pollution, according to a survey by the Datafolha institute published last week.

In one of the largest hospitals in Brasilia, patient care for respiratory problems exceeded the average by more than 20 times.

To withstand the dry climate in Brasilia, which accumulates more than 160 days without rainValderes Loyola installed a fan in his house, placed wet towels and buckets of water.

“When I go out I put on my mask,” this 72-year-old housewife tells AFP, with her mouth and nose covered, as she walks through the subway.

Classes were temporarily suspended in almost forty schools in the capital, while the authorities recommended that its inhabitants hydrate and avoid outdoor exercise.

Specialists point out that the smoke deposited in the air by fires generates effects comparable to smoke four to five cigarettes daily.

Air pollution can cause anything from respiratory “irritations to ailments” – such as bronchitis and asthma – and the risk is greater the longer the exposure, according to pediatrician Renato Kfouri, vice president of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations.

If the fires become recurrent “the trend is that this situation exists every year” in Brazil, doctor Evangelina Araujo, president of the Ar Institute, told AFP.

Internet searches for “air quality” They skyrocketed throughout Brazil to unprecedented levels, according to the Google Trends tool, which also reported an increase in the terms “humidifier” and “air purifier.”

In cities like Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, fans of sunrises and sunsets attended shows with reddish and orange tones, attributed to the reflection of rays on polluting particles.

Experts point to outdated models for measuring air quality and the absence of emergency plans in Brazil.

With only 1.7% of the municipalities with air monitoring stations and concentrated in the most populated and industrial areas of the southeast, the system “it is very precarious and outdated”, said Evangelina Araujo.

And the expert points out that only a fifth of these stations have the capacity to detect the harmful fine particles (PM2.5) found in smoke.

In Brazil, the daily limit for PM2.5 is 60 micrograms per cubic meter four times the World Health Organization recommendation.

And matching that pattern with international levels will take more than 20 years, according to a government resolution.