United States: Hazardous lead pollution from Los Angeles wildfires spread throughout southern California during the time of burning, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research.
More about the news
During the wildfire period, the Eaton Canyon fire released lead pollution that reached 110 times above normal levels based on readings from an air monitoring facility 14 miles away.
A CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study tracked the lead air pollution exceeding guidelines for three days, starting on January 8 and ending on January 11, before the levels returned to normal.
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.