This seems to be a simple question: Are the large amount of toxic substances emitted from the ocean in the Los Angeles County fires pose an ongoing threat to human health?

Over the past five months, public agencies, advocacy groups and scientists have analyzed seawater and sand samples to determine whether January's disaster has made swimming, surfing or sunlight less safe in the region's famous beaches.

Their collective results point to two broad truths.

First, neither government agencies nor privately funded groups have found fire-related pollution levels in sand or seawater, which may pose a health risk to beach travelers. Public health officials and advocates say while visible fire debris are still occasionally washed on shore and should be avoided, there is little evidence that the toxins associated with the fire are high enough to get sick through recreational recreational activities.

The second is that the January fire caused unprecedented ecological damage, which literally allowed a tool we could use to measure beach pollution.

Seawater safety tests to inform the county Beach water quality consultation It is designed to look for the hazards posed by sewage, not fire debris.

State and federal regulators Have clear guidelines There are plenty of heavy metals and chemicals in our drinking water before we think it is unsafe, but there is no similar standard for exposure to these things while swimming.

The lack of preexisting health guidelines makes it difficult for public health officials to describe the situation on the coast in simple declarative terms. This, in turn, frustrates a public, just wondering if it is safe to go back to the surfboard.

“There is no human health standard that can recreate the contamination of these pollutants on water or sand…so there is no direct way to test the contaminants for pollutants and then (say) that goes beyond the risk threshold, or not.” “This brings a lot of challenges.”

Palisade and Eaton opened fire to burn more than 40,000 acres, countless tons of plastic, electronics, building materials, batteries and other potentially dangerous materials. Due to the geographical location of the region, most of the toxic ash and residue end up being toxic Blast into the ocean.

County health officials Closed several miles of coastline It was entirely in January and February, citing the shore as a result of bacterial levels caused by destruction of sewage systems and dangerous dangerous debris.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Commission began collecting seawater samples Assess the level of pollutants.

The board of directors will soon Conversion of public data For the beaches from Las Flores Creek in Malibu to Playa del Rey beaches, dozens of different pollutants were shown, including heavy metals, PCBs and PAHs.

But again, there is no provision on how many of these pollutants that surfers or swimmers can safely get in contact with. There is not much historical data yet to compare the amount of current pollutants (such as plasticizers, flame retardants and other modern chemicals) with pre-prevention diseases.

As a result, county health officials worked hard to translate their findings into suggestions that the public could use.

"It's not like usual," said Dr. Nichole Quick, chief medical consultant for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

County health officials spent hours inserting the numbers into publicly available Environmental Protection Agency tools that help assess safe levels of environmental exposure. They also invited experts from other agencies to weigh the trade-offs.

Regardless of how they run the numbers, they see no evidence that the levels of pollutant present in January and February would threaten human health.

Healing Bay Seawater tested at about the same time. The team found enough lead and other heavy metals in some samples that could accumulate in the tissues of marine organisms over time, but not enough to make people who swim in these waters sick.

The county now has Online dashboard Environmental data for post-fire Including seawater testing.
But when it went live this spring, many publics were already frustrated by the lack of clear answers and confusing data online.

"It causes this anxiety," she said. "Everyone wants an answer now: Is this safe? So is me! I'm a surfer. My fins are drying. But we're trying to be patient at the same time."

The coastal ecosystem of Los Angeles is now the subject of large-scale real-life experiments. Just like in all scan studies, it takes a while for clear answers to appear. Meanwhile, advocates hope that the Los Angeles experience can now help the community respond to future disasters.

“This is not the last time we’ve seen a city in a coastal city, big Phil. This may not be the last time we’ve seen a city in Los Angeles, and we need to be better prepared.” “My hope is that we take the information we’re learning here and set protocols and standards for what we do next time.”