By Dan Ross
This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom L.A. Public Press on Jan. 14, and is republished here with permission.
Environmental health experts have a clear message to Angelenos returning to the blackened remains of their homes and businesses: protect yourself from harmful toxinsin the ash and air.
“Burn sites can be a kind of toxic waste dump,” said Chris Field, the Perry L. McCarty director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “Even treasured possessions can become dangerous after they’ve been through a fire.”
While typical wildfires eat up natural undergrowth, urban fires tear through manmade materials with all sorts of dangerous and often carcinogenic substances. Think transformers containing PCBs. Typical household items containing heavy metals like lead. Copper piping. Building materials with asbestos. Electrical wires coated in toxic polyvinyl chloride. Cars with lithium-ion batteries. Furniture full of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and other household products made with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Don’t assume you’re safe if you don’t live near the fires. Fine particulate pollution can be carried hundreds of miles away.
“The summer before last when we had the bad Canadian wildfires, you were getting fine particulate matter going all the way to New York City and Washington DC,” said Scott Fendorf, an earth sciences professor at the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University.
With all that in mind, extra care needs to be taken with vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, small children, the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions, said Rima Habre, associate professor of environmental health at the University of Southern California.
“Kids and toddlers like to play on the floor, so you definitely need to be careful they’re not close to or playing in areas with ash,” she said.
How to return to homes as safely as possible
If you’re searching through a lot of ash, rubble and debris, it’s important to wear sturdy protective gear like eye goggles. Of the disposable masks, tight-fitting N95 and P100 masks are among the best. Wear thick gloves and, if possible, steel bottomed and toe-capped boots.
Because dangerous toxins can also leach through the skin, make sure your arms and legs are well covered. Field recommends a Tyvek suit that fits head to toe, if that’s within your budget (though disposable Tyvek suits retail for as low as $10 online).
Try not to disrupt or kick-up ash and debris. Do not use leaf blowers. Be extra careful when sweeping. Dampening down the ash could be helpful. Field says to check first with local authorities if there are any guidelines for hosing down the ash and rubble. “I’ve seen some places where they recommend it,” he said.
FEMA recommends salvaging only those beloved items that can be safely removed without having to sift through the ashes.
Be extra vigilant if you have open wounds. “Cuts and scratches are a good way for infections to get in,” said Field.
Even if you take all these precautions, you’re still at risk of toxic exposures. That’s why experts recommend limiting the time you’re in a burn area. Many of the toxic chemicals found in the ash and rubble — like hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich — can stick around in the environment long after the fires are over, often until they’re washed away in heavy rains.
Is Your Home Still Standing? Here’s How to Minimize Smoke Damage
Even if your home hasn’t suffered structural damage, it might be impacted by indoor smoke pollution.
Home air cleaners are useful for removing some indoor pollutants. Filters labeled “MERV13” or higher are especially effective. Change the filters out regularly. The same goes for air conditioning filters.
Even so, filtered air cleaners won’t remove all the smoke and harmful substances from your home. “All these other chemicals can soak into the furniture and stick onto all sorts of surfaces,” said USC professor Habre. She calls them chemical “reservoirs.”
Wet surface cleaning like mopping floors, wiping down walls, and cleaning furniture and kids’ toys will help remove these reservoirs. Habre also recommends laundering all bed linens and clothes, using a quality detergent. While this is especially pertinent in evacuated areas, homes beyond these zones can also be impacted.
Habre explained that these indoor chemical pollutants don’t pose an immediate cause for alarm, but they might exacerbate health conditions in vulnerable populations over repeated exposures. She recommends getting to these things within a week or so of returning to your house (if you’ve been evacuated), starting at points where you or your kids spend a lot of time or places where there’s a lot of contact with skin.
When it comes to carpets and floors, use vacuum cleaners equipped with HEPA filters. Regular vacuum cleaners will recirculate a lot of the pollution within the home.
These articles offer detailed explainers on how wildfire smoke leaves harmful gases in floors and walls.
Air quality could get worse in the coming days
The research is clear that breathing in wildfire smoke is bad for you. Here’s LA County’s Public health’s smoke advisory for while the fires are active.
Air particles have different sizes. The smallest, more harmful kind of particulate pollution is known as PM 2.5. These particulates can embed in the lungs and get into the bloodstream and, over time, can increase your risk of heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is based on several pollutants. It’s a numerical value for how unhealthy the air is over a region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District has an interactive map showing the AQI in your community. The AirNow government website is also a real-time air quality map.
As of Tuesday morning, the air quality across most of Los Angeles was moderate. But the winds are expected to pick up again over the next few days while the two largest fires (the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires) remained largely un-contained.
Be wary of your smartphone’s AQI rating. Rania Sabty, a registered environmental health specialist in California, warned that the AQI might give people a false sense of security.
“The air quality index is based on monitors that are placed in different parts of the city. They’re not always local,” said Sabty, who added that, if in doubt, put on a good tight-fitting mask. “The [AQI] is not always going to give you an accurate idea of what the risk is right where you are.”
And while the best disposable masks are effective at filtering out a lot of the typical particulate matter from wildfires, they’re not going to block all toxic fumes and gases that are released in urban fires.
Good quality respirators can be more protective than disposable masks. However, “people think you’re going to put on a respirator and you’re going to be safe,” said Sabty.
For respirators to be fully protective, they need to be fit-tested with filtering cartridges routinely swapped out, said Sabty. Ideally, individuals would be properly trained on their use and maintenance.
Water Problems
A short and long-term impact from the fires is contaminated drinking water. Toxic chemicals can leach through the soil and down into the groundwater, even getting into drinking water pipes. Ash and other airborne toxic particles can settle on rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
The state water board has a useful explainer on drinking water impacts from wildfires and damaged water networks.
According to Sabty, many drinking water utilities are going to be strained over the next few weeks and months as they wrestle with the added burden from polluted water sources.
“The water departments are out there sampling and trying to adjust their treatment systems to the levels they’re finding, but that’s going to take time,” said Sabty. “Their systems now are not necessarily equipped to handle all these high levels of chemical contaminants.”
Some water utilities have already issued boil water notices. Make sure to check with your local drinking water provider for any water use warnings.
While boiling water can remove many biological contaminants like bacteria, Sabty warned that it can’t remove other chemicals, metals and other toxins that might be in the water. It might also release dangerous volatile contaminants. As such, she recommends that if you’re in any doubt about the quality of your drinking water supplies, use bottled water instead.
Runoff from the fires is also making a mess of LA’s beaches. The following LA County health department advisory currently applies to ocean and bay waters from Surfrider Beach to Dockweiler State Beach at World Way:
“The Department advises beach users to avoid all water contact, especially near discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers, due to potential debris and contamination from fires. This includes any runoff that may flow onto or pond on the beach sand. An ocean water advisory is being issued because of the uncertain amount of fire-fighting runoff, which may contain toxic chemicals and debris that have entered the ocean during fire-fighting operations.”
Useful websites and resources
- The Air Quality Management District’s wildfire and ash health safety tips.
- The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity toolkit on wildfire resiliency.
- EPA on protecting indoor air quality during a wildfire.
- California Air Resources Board advisory on protecting yourself from wildfire smoke.
- The Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) guidance on children’s health and wildfires.
- The wildfire smoke and children webpage is an advisory on how to help protect children from wildfire smoke and ash.
LA Public Press is an independent newsroom that publishes news in support of a healthier Los Angeles. The non-profit does journalism that interrogates systems of power while supporting those trying to build more equitable and resilient communities.