Paper published on Particulate Matter Emitted from Biomass Burning
24.12.2019IOM Scientists Prof John Cherrie, Will Mueller, Susanne Steinle, Sotiris Vardoulakis, and Miranda Loh have co-authored a paper entitled "How Harmful Is Particulate Matter Emitted from Biomass Burning? A Thailand Perspective." This has been published in Current Pollution Reports.
Purpose of Review
A large body of epidemiological evidence demonstrates that exposure to particulate matter (PM) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Many epidemiology studies have investigated the health effects of PM in Europe and North America and focussed on traffic derived PM. However, elevated levels of PM are a global problem and the impacts of other sources of PM on health should be assessed. Biomass burning can increase PM levels in urban and rural indoor and outdoor environments in developed and developing countries. We aim to identify whether the health effects of traffic and biomass burning derived PM are similar by performing a narrative literature review. We focus on Thailand as haze episodes from agricultural biomass burning can substantially increase PM levels.
The full text of the paper is available here.