Indonesian people risk having their life expectancy shaved off by four years on average due to exposure to dangerous particulate matter caused by the haze from forest fires, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

Almost every year, toxic haze caused by wildfires engulfs vast parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, filling the lungs of millions of people living in these areas, the Jakarta Post reported.

The fires typically occur as a result of slash and burn practices to clear land for oil palm or pulpwood plantations. As of September 20, there were 5,086 fire hotspots recorded in Indonesia and 328,724 hectares of land burned, according the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

In Central Kalimantan’s capital city of Palangkaraya, home to over 280,000 people, the air quality index (AQI) on September 16 was reported at the hazardous level of 452, according to AirVisual. Thus hundreds of thousands of people are exposed to high levels of unhealthy particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) or less.

This level of exposure to toxic air puts people in Riau and Kalimantan provinces at high risk of developing acute respiratory syndrome, an infection caused by inhaling unsafe levels of particulate matter in the air.

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