After the forest fires, the clear sky of the cache a “toxic soup”

One Sunday in February, a Ford Van White Zigzag crossed the district ravaged by the fire of Altadena, California. Ash right on the front. The charred washing machines were seated on bare concrete foundations.

“I cannot imagine coming back to this,” said Albert Kyi, a graduate student researcher at the University of Texas in Austin, briefly raising his laptop and through the van window.

He and his colleagues, however, were there to help people know if he was sure to do that exactly. A mast that came out of the roof of the van sent readings to hundreds of compounds in the air to the laptop. This laboratory on wheels was so sensitive, said Kyi, that he could detect chemicals produced by someone who peeles an orange outside.

The data that the team gathered was part of a newly launched study that followed the Impacts on the health of Los Angeles forest fires over the next decade. By crossing the 38,000 acres that include the two burning areas in Altana and the Pacific palisades as well as the surrounding region, the researchers hope to fill the gaps in the data on air, soil and water quality. Already, they have found a cause of concern.

More than 16,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and 2,000 others were damaged in recent fires. Until now, there is only limited information for tens of thousands of residents who return home in the affected areas to find out if it could be sure to grow vegetables in their backgrounds, swim in their swimming pools or make a morning race, especially since reconstruction efforts arouse potentially toxic ashes.

Researchers detected high concentrations of furfural, a compound associated with burned vegetation. “There are also styrene and benzene spikes,” added Mr. Kyi, his voice muffled by a breathing mask.

These volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, were particularly worrying because at high levels, they can cause cancer. They could have been produced by melted plastic or gasoline in burned cars seated in the aisles. In the atmosphere, they can form small particles that can irritate the lungs and increase the risk of pulmonary disease, stroke and heart attacks.

This is why a second vehicle behind the van recorded real -time counts of particles of pollutants so fine that they can reach deeply in the lungs and go into blood circulation or even the brain when they are inhaled. In the burning zone, the levels of such ultrafine particles were at times up to five times higher than the levels generally observed in areas not affected by forest fires or intense circulation.

There are still many scientists who do not know about the health risks of these emissions and others that may have been produced by forest fires, including at what level they could become dangerous, or how other factors, such as a person or pre -existing health conditions, can affect these risks.

Even with only preliminary data, researchers could say something without a doubt. No one should be in or close to the burning area without mask – especially to do no type of exercise, whether it is an evening walk or to work to clean what was left.

Going home, a “toxic soup”

In the past, researchers who study forest fires and human health have largely focused on the immediate effects of smoke inhalation and the dangers faced by leading workers such as firefighters, who have a significantly higher risk of developing lung and heart disease.

But as forest fires in the world have become more frequent and more serious, they have a higher risk for many more people. It makes it more important than ever to know exactly what pollutants are in smoke and where they finish.

During the fires of almost a month in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, for example, the plumes of smoke and ash traveled tens of kilometers from the active burn area, passing over the houses of millions of residents before jumping at sea.

“People go back home and live in a toxic soup,” said Michael Jerrett, scientist of environmental health at the University of California in Los Angeles who collaborates on the new effort. Dr. Jerrett’s previous research has suggested that more than 50,000 premature deaths in California between 2008 and 2018 can be attributed to the pollution of forest fires.

Fires have been burning for about a week when the new research collaboration has started to take shape. A representative of the Spiegel Family Fund, a philanthropic organization created by the co-founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, began to reach eminent forest researchers, said Dr. Kari Nadeau, doctor and environmental health expert in Harvard and one of the leaders of the new effort. Mr. Spiegel had seen the home of his father destroyed by the fire of the Palisades.

The research effort will monitor residents of heart disease, respiratory problems, cancers and other conditions during the next decade – an idea drawn from the register established for people exposed to smoke and dust of the September 11 attacks.

Inside the burning area, the federal government oversees the elimination of debris as well as the upper six inches to reduce toxins. The EPA said that it will not retest the soil after cleaning – even if the remediation and soil reconstruction efforts can arouse potentially harmful particles that had already settled.

The fires were still burning at the end of January when Mr. Kyi and other students from the University of Texas were invited to load the van to Austin and drive to the west to start taking these samples. Because the van is an electric vehicle – to prevent the machines from sucking its own exhaust pipes – the team had to stop for a load every 100 miles along the way.

So far, researchers Let’s say that the readings suggest that the pollutants at more than one mile outside the burning area have diluted sufficiently by the surrounding air so that they represent little danger. “I don’t think people have to worry about leaving Los Angeles,” said Yifang Zhu, air pollution researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, collaborating in research.

Inside the burning area, however, researchers are still trying to check the long -term contamination and risks. Although some of the chemicals that the team has identified have been linked to cancer and development disorders, most have never been studied for their health effects. Certain early research has also revealed high levels of lead in the ash and dust samples taken from the region, but it was not as severe or as widespread as the fact initially.

Another concern that has emerged from previous studies: the intense heat of forest fires can transform a normally benign shape of chrome, a metal found in certain Californian soils, into a carcinogen called hexavalent chrome, which can be found in dust and airborne ashes. Researchers are waiting for their results concerning chrome levels and also looking for “chemicals forever”, which are used in refrigerants and non -stick coverings and do not decompose in the environment. These results and others will be shared as they arrive on the project website and in publications evaluated by peers.

Even the houses that escaped that flames can contain hidden dangers, which is why researchers also test indoor air. The smoke and the ashes that have made its way to the houses will continue to release volatile organic compounds for several months or more. Six months after the Marshall 2021 fire in Boulder, Colorado, some residents who returned home inside or near the burning area have developed sore throat, headache and frequent cough.

Josh West, professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California, has lost about a third of his house in the Pacific Palisades on fire. “The house is restless of smoke, but the left side is not structurally damaged,” he said.

He is carrying out a separate research project to understand how contamination on the ground and water spreads from the burning zone, but the biggest personal question he is confronted with is whether one of his houses can be recovered safely.

“What do you do with what you don’t see?” He said. “It is difficult to make your mind in the extent of contamination.”