The world’s precious forest heritage has become, particularly in recent decades, much more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The succession of record temperatures has increasingly generated dangerous phenomena such as droughts and large wildfires, forcing people not only to abandon their homes and homelands and migrate to more distant geographical areas, but also, and above all, to fight the outbreak of dangerous diseases linked to such tragic climatic events.

For example: the smoke that develops during forest fires rises the so-called ‘particulate’ or carbon monoxide, a volatile mixture of organic compounds and nitrogen oxide (the same elements that form ozone). Particulate, which is carried and dispersed by the wind over several thousand kilometres, significantly reduces the quality of the air we breathe.

Carbon monoxide exposures cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems: worldwide, respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chest pain and heaviness, coughing, asthma and bronchitis affect hundreds of millions of people and several million die every year. Unfortunately, the number of deaths associated with these types of diseases is expected to rise in the near future because of the increment of fires and their emissions due to ongoing climate change.