LOS ANGELES () — In the hours and days after the Los Angeles fires sparked on Jan. 7, many were smelling and breathing in some of the smoke that was pumped into the sky.
For firefighters who were working long hours on the frontline, they were breathing in a lot more of that smoke.
A Harvard researcher who is taking part in the L.A. Fire Health study – a massive collaboration project studying the impacts of the fires – has found some of the toxins that was in that smoke in the blood of firefighters.
Dr. Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was able to collect blood samples from 20 Northern California firefighters who came down to Southern California to help battle the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Those blood samples were collected just days after the fires sparked.
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Nadeau says her preliminary testing shows those firefighters had on average lead levels in their blood five times greater than a control group. Their mercury levels were three times greater.
The control group were firefighters who just fought a Northern California wildfire where mostly trees burned – not homes and cars.
Nadeau says she was concerned when she saw the results.
“Wildfire smoke can start diseases in people that otherwise were healthy,” Nadeau said.
“We’ve done this (testing) before to firefighters, but this particularly was really high compared to even other fires that firefighters fight.”
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Even in adults, long-term lead exposure can impact muscles and lead to numbness.
The toxin can also severely impact the brain and increase the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“But it’s not just about lead and mercury,” Nadeau said.
“That’s what we could test right away. Now we’re going to be testing the blood and the firefighters, as well as other people in L.A., to look at other things that they might have been exposed to,” Nadeau said.
So does this initial testing need to concern all of us who breathed in some of that smoke in early January?
Southern California doctors say most of us did not inhale anywhere near the ash and airborne toxins a frontline firefighter would.
But still, they say when the next fire does spark, it is always best to avoid the smoke as much as possible.
“If you are in a building that has an air conditioner, an air filter, that can prevent a lot of the smoke or contaminants getting to you,” said Dr. Gabe Campion.
And if you do have to be outside, doctors say an N-95 mask really does offer you protection.
As for those 20 firefighters who took part in the research, Nadeau says most appear very healthy, but she wants to study them for the next 10 years to make sure the exposure to the toxins do not have any long-term impacts.
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