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New York Times
05-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
L.A. Officials Test Residents for Lead After Fires
Jairo Perez walked out of the parking lot of God's Waiting Room Church in Altadena, Calif., on a recent Saturday with his 9-year-old son, each with matching bandages in the crook of their elbows. They had just gotten their blood drawn to test for lead exposure. Two months ago, the family returned to their home along the border of Pasadena and Altadena after spending several weeks displaced by the Eaton fire. While their home survived, they had to throw away potentially contaminated mattresses and furniture, remove carpeting and deep-clean the space to rid it of ash. Now, the prospect that his son might have been exposed to toxic chemicals, like lead, is adding to Mr. Perez's concerns. 'We love our neighborhood, we love our community, we don't want to move,' he said. But, he added, 'I'm still worrying for my child, and I'm worrying about finding a place that's affordable if we have to move.' Three months after the Palisades and Eaton fires tore through Los Angeles County, residents are concerned about the potential long-term health effects of the fires, which burned over 16,000 structures and all of the toxic materials they contained. In March, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health started hosting free mobile blood lead testing events such as the one Mr. Perez and his son attended. The department has said it is prioritizing lead testing because 'it poses the most urgent and highest potential risk from the wildfires.' Those returning to their homes could be exposed to lead if they touch soil contaminated by wildfire ash, or track it into their homes. It's also possible to inhale particles kicked up into the air when sweeping or vacuuming ash. Early findings from the long-term L.A. Fire Health Study found that in the days after fighting the Los Angeles fires, firefighters had elevated levels of lead and mercury inside their blood cells. They also had higher levels than firefighters who battled forest fires in less urban areas, suggesting they may have been exposed to the unique threats of burned buildings, cars and electronics. And preliminary findings from soil sample testing released April 10 found elevated lead levels in the area downwind of the Eaton fire. That fire burned through a neighborhood where most homes were built before 1975, when lead-based paint was common. No amount of lead in blood is considered safe, but the possible risks vary based on age and level of exposure. For children, even low levels of lead in blood can potentially cause long-term impacts, including damage to the brain and nervous system, developmental delays, and learning and behavioral issues. Lead exposure during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and other issues. And in adults, chronic or high exposure levels have been associated with high blood pressure, kidney damage and problems with memory and concentration. By offering lead testing, public health officials hope to provide residents some answers about their risk. The results of these tests reflect lead exposure over the last six weeks, said Jill Johnston, an environmental epidemiologist and member of the L.A. Fire Health Study team. So far, results from the county's blood lead testing have been 'reassuring,' Dr. Nichole Quick, chief medical adviser for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said April 10 at a virtual town hall. Of the 240 people tested (including Mr. Perez and his son), no one had levels higher than a threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify people with more lead in their blood than the general population. It's generally 'good news' that blood lead levels are below that level, Dr. Johnston said. But she noted that it was unclear how many of the 240 individuals tested live in or near the burn areas, or in the area where soil samples showed elevated lead levels. That's what makes broader testing essential, she and other experts said. She added that long-term monitoring would also help researchers track how exposure levels might change as cleanup and rebuilding continue. The county will continue offering free testing at least through the end of August. Ruben Juarez, a professor of health economics at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, pointed to studies after the 2023 Lahaina fire in West Maui as evidence of the need for further lead monitoring. The Hawaii Department of Health tested 557 West Maui residents for lead and found just five people with elevated levels, leading health officials to conclude that the toxins in wildfire ash were unlikely to cause any medical problems. But Dr. Juarez, one of the lead researchers on a larger and longer-term study after those fires, said scientists found that more than 20 percent of participants had elevated levels of arsenic and that a small percentage had elevated levels of other heavy metals, including lead. The study also found a link between individuals exposed to those metals and lung health issues. 'A low result is good,' he said, 'but it's not the end of the story.'
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
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.
