La firefighters who fought with flames show an increased level of mercury and lead

In January, hundreds of firefighters in Los Angeles fought with Palisades and Eaton Blazes, when they were breaking through highly populated communities, killing more than two dozen people and destroying thousands of buildings.

A few days after their work, some of these firefighters had increased levels of lead and mercury in their blood in their blood – the quantities higher than those found in colleagues who fought against earlier forests’ fires in less populated areas.

This is an early discovery from La Fire Health StudyThe 10-year effort of the consortium of scientists in order to understand the impact of the impact of exposure to smoke and other pollution from recent fires in California.

Kari Nadeau, chairman of the Environmental Health Department at Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health, Palisadades levels and firefighters’ Eaton were five times higher than the level of forest firefighters, and their mercury level was three times higher.

Dr. Nadeau said that she was concerned, stating that the metals entered the cells of firefighters, not only their blood plasma. This means that metals can contact the cellular DNA, potentially causing miniature and long-term health consequences. The exposure to lead and mercury is associated, among others, with neurological disorders, but the way in which they affect them specific exposure to firefighters is not clear; Scientists will continue to follow them with time.

The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is working on ensuring treatment for firefighters, and scientists hope that their discoveries can lead doctors to diagnose more people earlier. Dr. Nadeau said that the rapid detection of lead and mercury toxicity is crucial. Therapy called chelatation can aid prevent long -term effects, but it is most effective if it is previously administered.

The data provided by Dr. Nadeau is preliminary. They come only from 20 firefighters and have not yet been published in the reviewed article.

But Minghao Qiu, a professor’s assistant to Ston Brook University, who studied the health effects of fire smoke, but was not involved in this study, said that he gave “quite importance” of the results. He said that they began to answer questions that the data was not available. Earlier tests were aimed at toxins in the air, but not inside the bodies of firefighters.

Research began to combine fire smoke with a number of health problems. But because climate change has made fires more often, intense and common evidence that health consequences may differ, not just frequency.

The discovery that firefighters who fought with the palisades and Blezeami Eaton were affected differently than those who fought after forest fires, match the existing evidence that fire smoke is not the same. Its content varies depending on the fuel source, fire intensity and interaction with weather conditions, said Michel Boudreaux, an expert on health policy at the University of Maryland.

This means that fire -burning buildings will produce various chemicals from the fire of a forested area, said Dr. Qiu.

Implications of this are the subject of continuous research. But they can affect the research on the effects of climate change Message this week that the National Institutes of Health can stop financing research on this subject.

Nih is the main source of financing for such research, although the La Fire Health study has received a lot of money from philanthropist.

Scientists do not yet know what the long -term effects of exposure to mercury and lead may be, or they have not finished blood analysis of firefighters. They plan to continue following lead levels, mercury and other toxins in the blood of firefighters and the trajectory of their health. Scientists and their partners are also working on tracking the health of local residents and measuring how well or badly interventions, such as masks and household air filters.

In a separate part of the study in February, scientists found that elevated levels of benzene and styrene in the air even after dispels smoke. These chemicals can potentially boost the risk of cancer, lung disease, stroke and heart attacks.

Dr. Qiu said that further research was needed to confirm how the lead and Mercury got into the blood of firefighters. If chemicals were inhaled by smoke while fighting fires, public health officials could give different recommendations from those they would have done if firefighters were exposed by ashes after the release of the burning.

“Recent arrangements emphasize many unrecognized cascading health effects on the part of a fire in the climate,” said Jennifer Runkle, an epidemiologist of the environment at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies Who he studied Fire exposure, but was not involved in the La Fire Health study.

Scientists I already know a lot When it comes to miniature -term risk, such as exposure to fire smoke, it is associated with the exacerbation of asthma. “But except for these direct effects,” said Dr. Runkle, “there is a hidden human cost, which we still have to effectively measure-such, which stays under the surface and has long-term health consequences for both firefighters and exposed communities.”