Fire manager Tony Blanks said minimising smoke nuisance in urban areas would continue to be a priority during the burning season.

Mr Blanks said there were 25 higher intensity burns planned for the North and North-East - fewer than last year.

More fires are planned in wetter forests in the Circular Head and Huon regions where unfavourable weather conditions meant planned burns could not go ahead in previous years.

Burning will start about mid-March and finish at the start of May.

Mr Blanks said Forestry Tasmania would continue to follow improved procedures implemented last year, including publicising its plans each morning and notifying residents if the fires might have contributed to air pollution.

He said it was important to provide as much information as possible to the community.

``We know the regeneration program causes some concern in some sections of the community, and frankly we wouldn't burn if it wasn't essential.''

New research led by Menzies Research Institute Tasmania, published this week, found smoke from forest, grass and agricultural fires had contributed to an average of 339,000 deaths a year between 1997 and 2006.

The chief investigator of the paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Fay Johnston, said fires set in tropical rainforests for clearance purposes and savannas produced the worst episodes of severe pollution.

``Poor health outcomes associated with fire smoke, for example, could be considerably reduced by restricting the deliberate burning of tropical rainforests, which rarely burn naturally,'' Dr Johnston said.