LA Times: PHI’s Anne Kelsey Lamb Shares Recommendations for Avoiding Health Hazards of Breathing Smoke-filled Air

“As Santa Ana wind conditions continue to stoke fears of resurgent wildfires across Los Angeles County, health officials are warning of yet another wind-borne threat: ash and dust from active fire zones and burn scars.

On Tuesday, the county Department of Public Health issued a windblown dust and ash advisory until 7 p.m. Wednesday.

During this time, ash may be dispersed from the Palisades and Eaton fire areas, as well as from the Hurst, Kenneth, Line, Airport and Bridge fire burn scars, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“Windblown ash particles may be too large to be detected by air quality instrumentation and will not influence Air Quality Index levels,” the advisory stated. “However, ash particles are typically visible to the naked eye either in the air or on outdoor surfaces.”

Experts say that wildfire smoke is unsafe for everyone and that all area residents should be worried about the potential health effects from this pollutant.

Wildfire smoke can be extremely harmful to the lungs of at-risk people, who include children whose lungs are still developing, pregnant women, older adults, and those with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart disease or diabetes, according to the American Lung Assn.

Exposure to air pollution such as wildfire smoke can also lead to the onset of asthma in otherwise healthy people, Lamb said.

As wildfires have become more common researchers have been learning that wildfire smoke, depending on what it consists of, can be even more dangerous to public health than other types of air pollution.

Last year the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation published a study in the journal Science Advances that found an estimated total of more than 55,000 premature deaths in an 11-year span from inhaling fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, or soot, from wildfires.

Air pollutants from wildfires are dangerous to the immediate fire zone and surrounding communities, but the harm can reach out farther.

Lamb noted that during the 2018 Camp fire in Butte County, researchers found smoke with lead in it 150 miles away from the fire zone.

“Even people who aren’t in the immediate vicinity of the fire are likely still facing some of the impacts of the smoke from it,” she said. “I encourage everyone in the broader area to take the same precautions that we would recommend for someone who’s really right there in the midst of it.”

“If I have to be outside, what can I do to stay safe?

If people need to be outside, experts recommend wearing an N95 mask.

That’s because those are really the only masks that are going to filter out the damaging fine particles, Lamb said.

“The surgical masks allow too much air to get in, because it’s not the tight fit,” she said. “It doesn’t filter out as fine of particles as the N95 does.”

Researchers have looked into wearing cloth masks during wildfire smoke and found that it “led to more exposure because some of the smoke sort of settled in the material and then it was continuously breathed in,” Lamb said.

There are a lot of Los Angeles residents who are out in surrounding communities volunteering their time to local disaster relief efforts, providing essential services and working.

“We want people to volunteer and help out, because we need that,” Wexler said.

But there are further safety steps that men with beards should take, he said.

Bearded men need to shave or at least cut back facial hair as much as possible so that a protective mask makes a firm seal around the face, keeping pollutants out.

Experts also urge everyone to remove clothes worn while working outside, including shoes, before entering home. Put the clothes in the wash right away, because some of the particulate they carry can come inside the home and affect other people, Lamb said.

One thing to remember, Lamb said, is that the components of the pollutants, including ash, will settle on the ground and can be aerosolized again when disturbed as part of the cleanup efforts.

“There may be no way to avoid that happening, but to avoid exposure, make sure you’re wearing a mask, and I would even have on eyewear, gloves and change clothes,” she said.”

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Originally published by LA Times