BBC visits wildfire front in haze-choked Indonesia

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1. 1

   BBC visits wildfire front in haze-choked Indonesia

   BBC NewsPublished Oct 19, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “As Indonesia battles its worst wildfire season in a decade, a toxic haze is choking millions of residents in the region. The BBC's Liza Tambunan is in central Kalimantan, where air pollution levels have plunged to hazardous levels. The haze has been linked to hundreds of thousands of respiratory illnesses in Indonesia, and has drifted to neighbouring countries like Singapore and Malaysia.”

2. 2

   Southeast Asian haze (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 20, 2026

   “The Southeast Asian haze is a fire-related recurrent transboundary air pollution issue. Haze events, where air quality reaches hazardous levels due to high concentrations of airborne particulate matter from burning biomass, have caused adverse health, environmental and economic impacts in several countries in Southeast Asia. Caused primarily by slash-and-burn land clearing, the problem flares up every dry season to varying degrees and generally is worst between July and October and during El Niño events. Transboundary haze in Southeast Asia has been recorded since 1972 with the 1997 and 2015 events being particularly severe. Industrial-scale slash-and-burn practices to clear land for agricultural purposes are a major cause of the haze, particularly for palm oil and pulpwood production in the region. Burning land occurs as it is cheaper and faster compared to cutting and clearing using excavators or other machinery. Fires started for this purpose sometimes spread and create forest fires, worsening the problem. The high concentration of peat in soil contributes to the haze's density and high sulphur content.”

3. 3

   Catastrophic impact of extreme 2019 Indonesian peatland fires on urban air quality and health.

   Communications earth & environment (Grosvenor et al.)Published Nov 2, 2024Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “Tropical peatland fires generate substantial quantities of airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and in Indonesia are intensified during El Niño-related drought leading to severe air quality impacts affecting local and distant populations. Limited in-situ data often necessitates reliance on air quality models, like that of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, whose accuracy in extreme conditions is not fully understood. Here we demonstrate how a network of low-cost sensors around Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan during the 2019 fire season, quantified extreme air quality and city-scale variability. The data indicates relatively strong model performance. Health impacts are substantial with estimates of over 1200 excess deaths in the Palangka Raya region, over 3200 across Central Kalimantan and more than 87,000 nationwide in 2019 due to fire-induced PM2.5 exposure. These findings highlight the need for urgent action to mitigate extreme fire events, including reducing fire use and landscape remediation to prevent peat fire ignition.”

4. 4

   Updated Smoke Exposure Estimate for Indonesian Peatland Fires Using a Network of Low-Cost PM2.5 Sensors and a Regional Air Quality Model.

   GeoHealth (Graham et al.)Published Nov 3, 2024Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “We deployed a network of 13 low-cost PM2.5 sensors across urban and rural locations in Central Kalimantan and measured indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations during the onset of an El Niño dry season in 2023. During the dry season (September 1st to October 31st), mean outdoor PM2.5 concentrations were 136 μg m-3, with fires contributing 90 μg m-3 to concentrations. Median indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios were 1.01 in rural areas, considerably higher than those reported during wildfires in other regions of the world (e.g., USA), indicating housing stock in the region provides little protection from outdoor PM2.5. We combined WRF-Chem simulated PM2.5 concentrations with the median fire-derived I/O ratio and questionnaire results pertaining to participants' time spent I/O to estimate 1.62 million people in Central Kalimantan were exposed to unhealthy, very unhealthy and dangerous air quality (>55.4 μg m-3) during the dry season. Our work provides new information on the exposure of people in Central Kalimantan to smoke from fires and highlights the need for action to help reduce peatland fires.”

5. 5

   Effects of smoke haze on respiratory clinic visits in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia according to different haze characteristics.

   International journal of epidemiology (Phung et al.)Published Oct 1, 2025Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “The present study aimed to examine the effects of haze on respiratory health outcomes by analysing local fire activity and duration.MethodsData for daily respiratory visits in Central Kalimantan were collected at local primary healthcare centers ('puskesmas') during the period spanning 2015-2019, encompassing two major haze episodes in the region. Particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ResultsThe risk of respiratory visits was prominent during haze days but varied by haze characteristics. There was a 36.6% (95% confidence interval: 10.2%, 69.3%) and 74.4% (18.9%, 164.6%) increased risk of respiratory visits in Pulang Pisau Regency during haze and fire haze, respectively. The risk was pronounced when the haze was characterized by longer durations.ConclusionOur findings suggest inconclusive effects of haze on respiratory visits to primary healthcare centers, although they appeared to be prominent in the area mainly dominated by fire haze. Haze characteristics should be analysed carefully for differences in risk patterns according to location.”

6. 6

   Attributing climate-related health burdens in Southeast Asia: a scoping review.

   The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific (Simion et al.)Published Aug 21, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “Although growing evidence demonstrates substantial health impacts from air pollution, heat, and extreme weather, the regional research landscape remains critically imbalanced, marked by neglect of other major hazards-including floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, storms and sea-level rise-and substantial methodological fragmentation. From 5294 records screened, 77 studies met our inclusion criteria. The evidence is dominated by air pollution research, the focus of 70% of studies and linked to up to 31% of all-cause mortality and an estimated 296,000 annual deaths from wildfire smoke during El Niño events. Heat, the second most studied exposure, was associated with up to 8.61% of mortality in Bangkok. In contrast, extreme events such as heatwaves, floods and storms were least frequently investigated. These findings reveal a critical misalignment between regional climate risks and current research focus. Standardized attribution frameworks are urgently needed to support integrated climate-health modeling and guide equitable, evidence-based adaptation across Southeast Asia.”