Brazilian researcher, funded by the Cuomo Foundation, expands his PhD research with a new initiative to protect public health.

While the enormous impact of deforestation and fires in the Amazonian rain forest on biodiversity, climate change, and the economy is well known, the broader impact on public health has received less attention.

As a result of this observation, Igor Oliveira Ribeiro, a Brazilian post doctorial researcher in Climate and Environment has initiated a locally focused programme entitled ‘Alerting the population to the risks of fire smoke’.

Mr Riberio is a former IPCC Scholarship awardee and has been partly supported in his research projects by the Cuomo Foundation since 2017. His doctoral thesis entitled ‘The impacts of forest fires on the air quality of a tropical megacity’ was supported by the Cuomo Foundation IPCC Scholarship programme. He lives and works in Manaus, the capital city of the vast state of Amazonas. He works at the University of Amazonas State (UEA) and in partnership with Harvard University, National Institute of Amazonia Research (INPA) and Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).

With this new research programme ‘Alerting the population to the risks of fire smoke’ the Foundation supported and encouraged Igor Oliveira Ribeiro and his Amazonas State University research group to develop the project’s applied research component in order to increase its positive impact on the local population.

A) installation of air quality sensors in selected schools in the Manaus region and deployment of the monitoring system (1st semester)

B) development of a user interface to make the data accessible and understandable to the general public (2nd and 3rd semesters)

C) Raising awareness of the environmental professionals and the population on air quality and the deployment of protection measures in case of forest fires (4th semester).
For this last phase in particular, a special coordination will be established with the Manaus fire brigade, which will be automatically alerted by the monitoring system in case of emergency. The schools will also be connected to the network so that, in the event of a pollution peak, pupils and teachers can be taken to safety and protective measures can be applied.

The Cuomo Foundation is proud to support this ambitious project, which has the distinction of proposing a scientific component capable of converting new knowledge into practical measures for public health protection almost simultaneously.

The project is supervised by Amazonas State University’s Postgraduate Program in Climate and Environment, the National Institute for Amazon Research and Fundação Universitas de Estudos Amazônicos (FUEA).