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New York Times
28-03-2025
- Health
- New York Times
L.A. Firefighters Who Fought Blazes Show Elevated Mercury and Lead Levels
In January, hundreds of firefighters fanned across Los Angeles County to fight the Palisades and Eaton blazes as they tore through heavily populated communities, killing more than two dozen people and destroying thousands of buildings. Days after their work, some of those firefighters had elevated levels of lead and mercury inside cells in their blood — amounts higher than those found in colleagues who had fought earlier forest fires in less populated areas. That is an early finding from the L.A. Fire Health Study, a 10-year effort by a consortium of researchers to understand the health effects of exposure to smoke and other pollution from the recent California wildfires. The Palisades and Eaton firefighters' lead levels were five times higher than the forest firefighters' levels, and their mercury levels were three times higher, said Kari Nadeau, the chair of the environmental health department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the lead researchers on the study. Dr. Nadeau said she had been alarmed to find that the metals had entered the firefighters' cells, not just their blood plasma. That means the metals can come into contact with cellular DNA, potentially causing short- and long-term health consequences. Lead and mercury exposure have been associated with neurological impairments, among other problems, but how the firefighters' specific exposures will affect them is not clear; the researchers will continue to follow them over time. The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is working to provide treatment to firefighters, and the researchers hope their findings could lead doctors to diagnose more people early. Quick detection of lead and mercury toxicity is key, Dr. Nadeau said. A therapy called chelation can help prevent the long-term effects, but is most effective if administered early. The data shared by Dr. Nadeau are preliminary. They come from only 20 firefighters and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed paper. But Minghao Qiu, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University who has studied the health effects of wildfire smoke but was not involved in this study, said that he gave 'quite some weight' to the findings. He said that they began to answer questions on which data had not been available. Previous research had measured toxins in the air, but not inside firefighters' bodies. Research has started to link wildfire smoke to a range of health problems. But as climate change has made wildfires more frequent, intense and widespread, evidence is emerging that the health consequences could differ in kind, not just frequency. The finding that firefighters who fought the Palisades and Eaton blazes were affected differently than those who fought forest fires fits with existing evidence that wildfire smoke is not the same everywhere. Its contents differ based on the fuel source, the fire's intensity and interactions with atmospheric conditions, said Michel Boudreaux, a health policy expert at the University of Maryland. That means a fire burning buildings will produce different chemicals from a fire burning a forested area, Dr. Qiu said. The implications of this are a subject of ongoing research. But studies on the health effects of climate change could be affected by the news this week that the National Institutes of Health may stop funding studies on the topic. The N.I.H. is a primary source of funding for such research, though the L.A. Fire Health Study has received much of its money so far from a philanthropist. The researchers don't yet know what all of the long-term effects of the exposure to mercury and lead might be, nor have they finished analyzing the firefighters' blood. They plan to continue to track the levels of lead, mercury and other toxins in the firefighters' blood, and the trajectory of their health. The researchers and their partners are also working to track local residents' health and to measure how well or poorly interventions like masks and household air filters protected them. In a separate part of the study in February, researchers found elevated levels of benzene and styrene in the air even after the smoke appeared to have dissipated. Those chemicals can potentially increase the risk of cancer, lung disease, stroke and heart attacks. Dr. Qiu said further research was needed to confirm how the lead and mercury had gotten into the firefighters' blood. If they inhaled the chemicals through smoke while battling the fires, public health officials might make different recommendations from those they would make if the firefighters were exposed via the ash after the blazes had been put out. 'The recent findings highlight the many unrecognized cascading health effects from climate-intensified wildfire,' said Jennifer Runkle, an environmental epidemiologist at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies who has studied wildfire exposure but was not involved in the L.A. Fire Health Study. Scientists already know a fair amount about short-term risks, such as that exposure to wildfire smoke is linked with asthma flare-ups. 'But beyond these immediate impacts,' Dr. Runkle said, 'there is a hidden human cost that we have yet to measure effectively — one that lingers beneath the surface and has long-term health consequences for both firefighters and exposed communities.'
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Palisades and Eaton firefighters had elevated blood levels of mercury and lead, according to an early study
The immediate risks faced by the firefighters who were on the front lines battling the Palisades and Eaton fires that tore through Los Angeles County may have abated, but long-term health concerns remain. A team of researchers tested the blood of a group of 20 firefighters who were called to duty when the wildfires hit Los Angeles County communities, and found that they had levels of lead and mercury in their blood that was significantly higher than what health experts consider to be safe — and also higher than firefighters exposed to a forest fire. The results are part of the longer-term LA Fire Health Study, which is investigating the health impacts of the January fires on those exposed to the toxins it released into the the environment. The team includes researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, UC Davis, the University of Texas at Austin, and the USC Keck School of Medicine. "What you need to worry about is some of these metals that, when they get burned, they get up in the air," said Dr. Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the researchers working on the project. "They can get into your lungs, and they can get into your skin, and they get can absorbed and get into your blood." The group of 20 firefighters — who had come from Northern California to assist in the efforts — were tested just days after the fires were contained. They had toiled for long hours as the two fires razed entire communities, burning homes, cars, businesses, and a still unknown list of chemicals and metals. Combined, the fires killed 29 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. On average, said Nadeau, the firefighters had lead and mercury levels three and five times higher, respectively, than a control group of firefighters who fought a forest fire alone. According to the California Department of Public Health, the average blood lead level for adults in the United States is less than 1 microgram per deciliter. Read more: Communities are rebuilding after L.A. fires despite lack of soil testing for toxic substances Researchers are still looking to expand the number of firefighters in the study, as well as the range of toxins they may have been exposed to. Nevertheless, even these limited and preliminary findings bolster a growing worry among firefighters that the L.A. fires may have exposed them to metals and chemicals with long-term health effects. "The results are pretty alarming," said Dave Gillotte, a captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and president of the Los Angeles County Firefighters Local 1014. "We don't just fear, but we're quite confident that we're going to see health impacts with our firefighters who fought these fires on the front lines." Firefighters regularly risk exposure to chemicals and metals — including lead and mercury — when responding to house and commercial fires in an urban setting, Gillotte said. But response to a single house fire, for example, would likely last a few hours, not the days on end of the Palisades and Eaton fires. Firefighters also typically face prolonged exposure to the particulate matter in smoke when fighting wildfires in rural areas — but not the chemicals of an urban setting. The Eaton and Palisades fires presented a combined risk: a wildfire-like blaze with firefighters on the ground for extended periods in an urban setting, with electric vehicles, batteries, chemicals and metals burning in high heat, mixing and spreading with the same wind that was spreading the flames. "It was a more intense exposure as a result of the wind driving those toxins, even with our protective gear," Gillotte said. Read more: New fire maps increase hazard zones in L.A. and Southern California by 3.5 million acres According to Gillotte, these types of urban wildfires could cause long-term health impacts for first responders similar to those from events like the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Already, officials from the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the Sacramento Fire Department, and Los Angeles County have begun to test their firefighters for metal and chemical exposure, Gillotte said. Meanwhile, as part of a separate study, Los Angeles city fire officials have also been looking at the health effects on its firefighters. "We are very concerned and worried," said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Kevin Frank. The LAFD has so far taken blood and urine samples of about 350 of its firefighters, as part of an ongoing nationwide study, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to look at firefighters' biomarkers and exposure to cancer-causing substances. That study — which is different than the LA Fire Health Study and the one mentioned by Gillotte — includes more than 7,000 firefighters from across the country. After the fires, Frank said, several firefighters who reported to Altadena and Pacific Palisades reported health issues, such as trouble breathing. Nadeau, who is working on the LA Fire Health Study, but not the FEMA-funded national study, noted that exposure to heavy metals can contribute to worse long-term health outcomes. Firefighters already face higher levels of some illnesses, such as autoimmune diseases, asthma and some cancers, she said. Fire officials said the life expectancy of a firefighter is about 10 years lower than that of the average person. The LA Fire Health study is still in its early stages. Nadeau says she and her colleagues plan to look for evidence of exposure to other heavy metals in addition to mercury and lead. "We're going to be studying toxins that haven't been studied" in firefighters before, she said. Read more: Swimming pools in Eaton fire burn area could become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, officials warn Typically, the results of studies like these are not made public until they have been peer-reviewed and published by a scientific journal. Nadeau said the consortium decided to share some of the preliminary data early, hoping to help residents, civic leaders and first responders understand the impacts of the fires. "You really want to know: 'What's in the air, what's in the water, what's in the ash that blew into my kitchen cabinet? Do I let my dog outside?'" she said. "All these questions were coming up and we thought, 'We really need to serve the community.'" Indeed, while the initial findings will be focused on firefighters' exposure, the team is also looking into residents' exposure to heavy metals and chemicals. Nadeau is also looking ahead: The information, she says, could help fire officials as they face the possibility of another similar fire by helping them better understand the source of the chemicals, how safety equipment was used during the fires, and the efficacy of that gear. "I'd like to say this is the last of its kind, but we know it won't be," she said. "It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when people undergo a fire like that again in L.A." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
L.A. Firefighters Show Elevated Lead and Mercury Levels After Wildfires
The Palisades and Eaton fires ravaged over 37,800 acres, demolished thousands of structures, and claimed lives. Crews from across California and beyond worked tirelessly to contain the flames and help displaced Angeles County Department of Public Health launched the L.A. Fire Health Study to investigate the long-term impacts of the wildfires. The study focuses on two main goals: examining present pollutants—their levels and changes over time—and determining if the fires correlate with health concerns among nearby after the fires began, Dr. Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, collected blood samples from 20 Northern California firefighters who assisted with the Palisades and Eaton initial testing revealed that these firefighters, who primarily fought burning trees rather than homes or vehicles, had lead levels five times higher and mercury levels three times higher than a control group. Long-term lead exposure can cause significant health problems, including lung issues, heightened Alzheimer's risk, and increased cancer doctors note that most L.A. residents didn't inhale the same concentration of toxins and ash as frontline firefighters, Nadeau's team plans to continue monitoring the initially tested firefighters, other first responders, and L.A. residents who were exposed to the fires."This was an environmental and health disaster that will unfold over decades," Nadeau and other specialists recommend residents avoid smoke to prevent inhaling particles from debris. When outside, wearing an N-95 mask offers protection."By bringing together experts from across multiple institutions and disciplines, we can rigorously examine the health effects from the wildfires' toxic particles and gases that have spread hundreds of miles beyond the fire zones and provide the communities with this information in real time," said Nadeau.
