The study also estimates 1,750 deaths from urban and industrial pollution, bringing the total number of air pollution-related deaths that month to 5,310.
Key takeaways
A CREA study reports that forest and land fires caused 3,560 deaths in Indonesia in September 2026, doubling the previous month's estimate. The pollution affected 57.8 million people, with the highest mortality rates on Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.
- Fire-related PM2.5 pollution caused 3,560 deaths in September 2026, a twofold increase from August.
- Non-fire pollution from industry and transport caused an additional 1,750 deaths that month.
- PM2.5 levels exceeded WHO annual thresholds by up to 24 times in Kalimantan.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by Free Malaysia Today. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
A woman wearing a face mask pushes a cart filled with used plastic bottles along a road amid severe haze caused by forest and land fires in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, in late October. (AFP pic)JAKARTA: Air pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September alone, according to a scientific study.
The same month, about 57.8 million people were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank.
"Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026, a twofold increase from the August estimate," said a CREA statement.
