United States: The Los Angeles wildfires released hazardous lead pollution, which entered the southern California skies while the fires burned across their path, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study.
More about the news
An air monitoring site located 14 miles from the Eaton Canyon fire recorded lead levels at 110 times above normal during the time of wildfires.
The study published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report documented how lead contamination in the air exceeded normal thresholds for three consecutive days, starting on January 8 until January 11, before returning to typical levels.
According to the team lead, led by senior researcher Nga Ng, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, “The presence of heavy metals such as lead is not unusual in urban fire emissions, particularly in California, where legacy pollutants from older infrastructure, industrial sources, and soils can be remobilized during fires,” US News reported.
What more are the experts stating?
On January 9, the L.A. wildfires reached their highest release point for lead at 0.5 micrograms per cubic meter, according to results.
According to the researchers, the Environmental Protection Agency has established 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter as the maximum standard for lead contamination in the air through a rolling three-month average.
Researchers noted that short, intense exposure to airborne lead poses unknown health risks for human beings.
As the team stated, “Lead is a toxic air contaminant that is distributed in multiple human tissues and accumulates in teeth and bones,” US News reported.
“It affects nearly every organ system, posing significant health risks, particularly for children, who are more vulnerable to its neurodevelopmental effects,” they noted.
EPA’s statement
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead exposure in children causes brain development issues, which result in behavioral complications together with impaired learning and reduced IQ.
But, the researchers also noted that “the health effects of brief, elevated lead exposures, such as those described in this report, are not well understood.”
“Additional health research is needed because airborne lead levels alone do not necessarily indicate exposure,” the report added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirms that lead exposure has no acceptable tolerable limit.
The United States recorded a substantial 97 percent decrease in airborne lead levels throughout the 1980s due to the removal of lead components from gasoline and plumbing pipes and residential paint and consumer products that occurred during that time period, as researchers document.