{"id":1587,"date":"2025-04-01T10:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T02:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/?p=1587"},"modified":"2025-04-01T10:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T02:44:31","slug":"alarming-lead-levels-found-in-eaton-fire-burn-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/?p=1587","title":{"rendered":"Alarming Lead Levels Found in Eaton Fire Burn Area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tags: Eaton Fire, Lead Contamination, Air Quality, Environmental Health, Caltech Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lead Contamination Detected in Homes Affected by Eaton Fire<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Researchers at <strong>Caltech<\/strong> have been analyzing samples from homes in <strong>Altadena<\/strong> and surrounding areas since the <strong>Eaton Fire<\/strong> burned hundreds of homes in January. Out of <strong>52 tests<\/strong>, more than <strong>half<\/strong> showed lead levels exceeding the <strong>EPA safety limit<\/strong> on indoor surfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;For children, there is no safe level of lead,&#8221; warned <strong>Francois Tissot<\/strong>, a Caltech professor of geochemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Severe Lead Accumulation in Indoor Dust and Ash<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tissot\u2019s laboratory has been processing <strong>dust and ash samples<\/strong> collected from windowsills in the affected area. In one case, a sample showed <strong>6,000 micrograms of lead per square foot<\/strong>, far exceeding the <strong>EPA limit of 40 micrograms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If you were in the fire plume, especially in Pasadena near the burn zone, there will be lead and heavy metals in the house,&#8221; Tissot said. &#8220;For sure.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some homes, including one tested by Caltech, have lead contamination so severe that experts consider them <strong>too dangerous to inhabit<\/strong> until proper remediation is completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Cleaning Can Reduce Lead Levels \u2013 But Not Always<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tests showed that <strong>90% of cleaned windowsills<\/strong> had lead levels within safe limits. However, in some cases, cleaning alone did not completely eliminate contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;You cannot just assume that because you have cleaned, it is clean,&#8221; Tissot cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Air Quality Monitoring and Future Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caltech researchers, including air quality expert <strong>Paul Wennberg<\/strong>, are also tracking <strong>airborne dust levels<\/strong> in the burn area. With <strong>25 air monitors<\/strong> placed in and around the Eaton burn zone, they have found that <strong>dust levels spike overnight<\/strong>, possibly due to <strong>ash blowing down from the mountains<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next phase of research will focus on <strong>identifying potential toxins<\/strong> in the dust and assessing their impact on human health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Residents in affected areas are urged to take <strong>precautionary measures<\/strong>, including regular cleaning and monitoring of air quality updates on <strong>Caltech\u2019s website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tags: Eaton Fire, Lead Contamination, Air Quality, Envi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportpro.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}