Impacts of Biomass and Garbage Burning on Air Quality in South/Southeast Asia

Biomass burning negatively impacts health, air quality, and climate globally. Here, we investigated the forest burning emissions and their impacts on air quality in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. We also focused on the health impacts of biomass burning air pollution to demonstrate the drawbacks of forest burning in Southeast Asia. Major forest fire events from 1994 to 2015 showed increased concentrations of coarse particles (PM₁₀), which commonly resulted in a smoke haze. Additionally, we focused on garbage and agricultural residue burning emissions in India, Nepal, and Pakistan due to the prevalence of these events in these countries. Overall, we found a lack of research on the impacts of forest fires, garbage burning, and agricultural burning on air quality in Asia. Several policy recommendations are presented, including creating educational programs and affordable garbage and crop residue systems and investing in renewable energies to improve air quality in Asian countries.