The immediate risks faced by frontline firefighters fighting the Pallisard and Eton fires that tore Los Angeles County may have diminished, but long-term health concerns remain.
A team of researchers tested the blood of a group of 20 firefighters called to work when the wildfire struck a community in Los Angeles County and found that levels of lead and mercury in the blood were significantly higher than what they thought were safe.
The results are part of the long-term LA Fire Health Survey, which examines the health effects of the January fire, and are fires for people exposed to toxins released into the environment. The team includes researchers from Harvard Chan School of Public Health, UCLA Fielding of Public Health, UC Davis, University of Texas at Austin, and USC Keck School of Medicine.
“The thing you need to worry about is that some of these metals will get them up in the air when they get burned,” said Dr. Kari Nadow, chairman of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and one of the researchers working on the project. “They can enter your lungs, they can enter your skin, they can be absorbed and they can enter your blood.”
A group of 20 firefighters from Northern California to support the effort was tested a few days after the fire was contained. They struggled for a long time as two fires destroyed the entire community, burned homes, cars and businesses, and destroyed an yet unknown list of chemicals and metals. Together, the fire killed 29 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
On average, firefighters had three and five times higher lead and mercury levels, respectively, than the control group of firefighters who fought alone in forest fires, Nadeau said. 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 deciliator.
Researchers are still thinking about how many firefighters in the study and the extent of toxins they may have been exposed to. Nevertheless, even these limited preliminary findings reinforce the growing concern among firefighters that LA Fires may have exposed them to metals and chemicals with long-term health effects.
“The results are pretty amazing,” said Dave Guillott, captain of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and president of local 1014 for Los Angeles County Firefighters.
Firefighters are regularly at risk of exposure to chemicals and metals containing lead and mercury when dealing with homes and commercial fires in urban areas, Guillott said. But for example, response to a single home fire could last for several hours, not the last day of the Pallisard or Eton fire. Firefighters are also typically exposed to smoke particulate matter when fighting wildfires in rural areas, but not urban chemicals. The Eton and Palisade fires presented a combined risk. Wildfire-like flames with long-term firefighters in urban areas, electric cars, batteries, chemicals and metals burn with high heat, mixing and spreading in the same wind that spreads the flame.
“Even with our protective gear, the winds driven those toxins, which was a more intense exposure,” Guillott said.
According to Gillotte, wildfires in these types of cities could cause long-term health effects for first responders from events such as the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Already, officials from the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the Sacramento Fire Department and Los Angeles County have begun testing the fires for metal and chemical exposure.
Meanwhile, as part of another study, Los Angeles firefighters are also considering the impact on firefighters’ health.
“We’re very worried and we’re worried,” said Colonel Kevin Frank of the Los Angeles Fire Department. To date, LAFD has ingested blood and urine samples from around 350 firefighters to date as part of an ongoing national study funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to investigate exposures in firefighters and cancer causes. Unlike the LA Fire Health study and the studies mentioned by Gillotte, this study includes more than 7,000 firefighters from across the country.
After the fire, several firefighters reported to Altadena and Palisades in the Pacific Ocean reported health issues, including difficulty breathing. Nadeau, who is working on the LA Fire Health Study, but not a national study funded by FEMA, noted that exposure to heavy metals could contribute to worsening long-term health outcomes.
Firefighters already have high levels of several illnesses, including autoimmune diseases, asthma and some cancers, she said. Firefighters said the average life expectancy for firefighters is about 10 years lower than the average person’s life expectancy.
Research into the LA fire is still in its early stages. Nadeau says she and her colleagues will look for evidence of exposure to mercury and lead as well as other heavy metals. “We’re going to study unstudied toxins,” she said.
Typically, the results of such studies are not published until they are peer-reviewed by scientific journals and published. Nadeau said the consortium has decided to share some of the preliminary data early, hoping to help residents, civic leaders and first responders understand the impact of the fire.
“You really want to know. ‘What’s in the air, what’s in the water, what’s in the ashes I’ve blown into my kitchen cabinet? Will I let the dogs go outside?” “All of these questions came up and thought, ‘We really need to serve the community.’ “In fact, the initial findings focus on firefighters’ exposure, but the team is also considering residents’ exposure to heavy metals and chemicals.
Nado also looks ahead. The information can help officials as they face another similar fire possibility by helping them better understand the source of the chemical, how the safety equipment was used during the fire, and the effectiveness of the gear, she says.
“I want to say this is the last of that kind, but I know it’s not,” she said. “That’s not the problem, it’s the problem when people start such a fire again in LA.”
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