"In the first 90 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in January, the caseload at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's emergency room looked different from the norm. There were 46% more visits for heart attacks than typically occured during the same time period over the previous seven years. Visits for respiratory illnesses increased 24%. And unusual blood test results increased 118%."
"While other U.S. wildfires have consumed more acres or cost more lives, the Palisades and Eaton fires were uniquely dangerous to human health because they burned an unusual mix of materials: the trees, brush and organic material of a typical wildfire, along with a toxic stew of cars, batteries, plastics, electronics and other man-made materials. There's no precedent for a situation that exposed this many people to this kind of smoke, the paper's authors said."
In the 90 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's emergency room experienced a 46% increase in heart attack visits, a 24% increase in respiratory illness visits and a 118% rise in unusual blood test results compared with the same period over the prior seven years. The fires burned both organic materials and large quantities of cars, batteries, plastics, electronics and other man-made goods, producing unusually toxic smoke. Exposure to that smoke likely increased health complications and may have raised mortality beyond the 31 fatalities attributed to injuries. The fires' mixed-material combustion created an unprecedented public-health hazard.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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