PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Persistent smoke over the Amazon worried on Tuesday Brazilians who say that respiratory problems, especially in children and the elderly, have increased as fires ravage the region.” Children are affected more. A lot of coughing,” said Elane Diaz, a nurse in Porto Velho, the state capital of Rondnia, while he waited to enter a hospital office 9 July with his five-year-old son Eduardo. “They have trouble breathing. I’m worried because it affects his health.”
The number of people served by respiratory problems has increased dramatically in recent days at the city’s Cosme e Damiao children’s hospital. HELP US Click the Google News star and follow us”This period has been very difficult. Dry weather and smoke cause a lot of problems in children, such as pneumonia, cough and discharge,” Daniel Pires, pediatrician and deputy director of the hospital, told Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. “From 1 to 10 August, the average number of cases was approximately 120 or 130 children with breathing problems. From August 11 (to August 20) it rose to 280 cases.” Growing fears about the impact of fires on health increase as the number of fires has increased, with more than 77,000 documented by the National Space Institute in the past year. About half were recorded in the Amazon region, and most of them in the last month. But while respiratory-related ailments appear to increase, the situation has been overshadowed in recent days by rising tensions between Brazil and European countries seeking to help fight fires in the Amazon and protect a region considered vital to the health of the planet. At a summit in France, the G7 nations pledged monday to fight fires and protect tropical forests with a $20 million donation, in addition to the independent contributions of $12 million from Britain and Can’s other 11 million Adá. But Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right is skeptical of climate change who took office this year with a promise to boost development in the main Latin American economy, questioned whether international aid offerings cover up a plan to exploit the region’s resources and weaken Brazilian growth. On Tuesday, he said his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, called him a liar and that he would have to apologize before Brazil considers accepting the aid. Macron should retract those comments “and then we will talk,” Bolsonaro noted.In a video message, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho offered an apology to France for what he called Bolsonaro’s “hysteria,” noting that the Brazilian government has appealed to insults to evade responsibility for the fires in the Amazon.While, in the country many showed their support for Bolsonaro despite national and international criticism of its handling of the crisis, highlighting the existing division in the nation. Grace Quale, a hospital technician who attended a mass in an evangelical church on Sunday, noted that critics “want to overthrow our president” and that she sees no link between the leader’s environmental policies and the number of people treated breathing problems. Others said in an open letter that the executive’s speech and actions are causing a “collapse in federal environmental management and stimulating environmental crimes inside and outside the Amazon.” More than 500 employees of the environmental regulator IBAMA signed the text and included a list of recommended emergency measures, such as hiring more employees and qualified managers, as well as increasing budget and autonomy. The Amazon has experienced an increase in the rate of fires during dry periods in the last 20 years, but this year’s phenomenon is “unusual” because the drought has not yet occurred, explained Laura Schneider of Rutgers-New Brunswick.Shcneider University, adjunct professor in the geography department said people often use fire to clean up land for agricultural use, and that the burned area should be measured this year to make an accurate comparison against the damage of previous years. Although many of this year’s fires originated in already deforested areas and at the hands of people dismantling land for agricultural and livestock development, the Brazilian government’s figures indicate that the conflagrations are much more extensive this year, which reveals an increase in the threat to the vast ecosystem. For the moment, the most immediate consequences of the flames begin to be glimpsed. The Amazon rainforest is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide absorption, and is considered a critical defense to combat rising temperatures and other problems related to climate change. The government of the Amazonian state of Rondsnia warned that the burning of land can produce smoke that can “greatly influence air pollution, endangering the lives of many.” Experts note that exposure to smoke can lead to rinitis, sinusitis and respiratory problems, such as asthma and bronchitis, in residents, while chronic exposure could lead to diseases such as pulmonary emphysema.” We have seen that (Porto Velho) has been taken by smoke, so inhaling these antigens and pathogens can harm the entire population of the city,” ana Carolina Terra Cruz, a specialist in lung diseases, said recently on the government’s cybersite State. On Tuesday morning you could see some clouds and the blue sky in Porto Velho. But in the afternoon the mist settled again, with a smoke so dense that it concealed a normally scorching sun. Mona Lisa Pereira, an agronomist, said the smoke was “everywhere.” It’s bad for everyone,” he added. “Not just for our children.”
