Have wildfires become a major public health risk?

Bertie speaks with Mark Parrington about this year’s record-breaking wildfires, and the health implications of increasing air pollution.
Mark is a senior scientist at the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, where he uses satellite imagery to monitor wildfire emissions in real-time.
He tells Bertie about the scale of the recent surge in wildfires across Europe, North America, and the Arctic, and the health impacts of particulate matter and long-range pollution transport. They also discuss the climate implications as wildfires – especially in Arctic peatlands - release millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Further reading:
• Arctic Climate Change Update 2024: Key Trends and Impacts, AMAP (amap.no/documents/doc/amap-arctic-climate-chan…) , 2024
• State of Wildfires 2023-2024, Earth System Science Data, (essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/3601/2024/essd…) 2024
• 'Global, regional, and national mortality burden attributable to air pollution from landscape fires: a health impact assessment study', The Lancet, (thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140…)02251-7/abstract) 2024
• 'EU wildfires worst on record as burning season continues', The Guardian, (theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/22/eu-wildfires…) 2025
• 'Why are Europe and the Arctic heating up faster than the rest of the world?' Copernicus, (climate.copernicus.eu/why-are-europe-and-arcti…) 2025
• 'Current wildfire situation in Europe', The Joint Research Centre: EU Science Hub, (joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-an…) 2025
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