Description

Recent extreme wildfire events (EWE) in Australia, the United States of America (USA), Greece and Portugal highlighted the seriousness of wildfire smoke impacts on society. Nowadays, about 2000 premature deaths occur annually in the USA due to chronic wildfire smoke exposure, and this value is expected to be doubled by the end of the century as tens of million people will get exposed to massive “smoke waves” under the climate change framework. In Portugal, the destructive 2017 wildfires seriously changed the way the population think about wildfires safety, with 117 persons dying and many others needing medical assistance due to smoke intoxications.