In addition to the loss of life, property, livelihoods, and vegetation caused by the raging wildfires in greater Los Angeles, residents of the stricken area will have to cope with the effects of smoke-related unhealthy air, the Los Angeles County Health Department warned in a January 11, 2025 advisory.
The lingering health effects of the area’s air quality have received scant attention as firefighters battled to extinguish the blazes and people who lost their homes asked how such a calamity could have happened. Now public health officials are warning about the consequences of prolonged exposure to smoke.
“Wildfire smoke is a mixture of small particles, gases, and water vapor,” the advisory states. “The primary health concern is the small particle, which can cause burning eyes, runny nose, scratchy throat, headaches, and illness (i.e. bronchitis). People at high risk, children, the elderly, those with respiratory or heart conditions, and people with compromised immune systems, may experience more severe effects such as difficulty in breathing, fatigue, and/or chest pain.”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District has been providing residents with real-time air quality updates and forecasts.
Lingering Effects
The wildfires were nearly contained by January 27, but they left behind considerable ash and soot which can weaken people’s health over time.
“Predicting where ash or soot from a fire will travel, or how winds will impact air quality, is difficult, so it’s important for everyone to stay aware of the air quality in your area and take action to protect your health and your family’s health,” Los Angeles County health officer Muntu Davis, MD, MPH, said in a statement.
The advisory recommended immediate medical care for severe coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain, palpitations, nausea, or unusual fatigue.
Ten Year Study
On January 31, researchers from four universities announced a ten-year study on the short- and long-term health impact from the Los Angeles fires.
The Los Angeles Fire Human Exposure and Long-Term Health Study will examine the pollutants the fire released, the levels, and what effects they are having on the respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune systems.
“By bringing together experts from across multiple institutions and disciplines, we can rigorously examine the health effects from the wildfires’ toxic particles and gases that have spread hundreds of miles beyond the fire zones and provide the communities with this information in real time,” said Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in a press release
“With this study we can supply sound science to help residents repopulate and rebuild their neighborhoods safely, and for the first time, we can learn about the long-term health effects of wildfires,” said Michael Jerrett, of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
In 2024, the Annual Review of Medicine published a study describing the dangers of exposure to wildfire smoke.
“Wildfires emit a mixture of particles and gaseous pollutants that are known to negatively impact human health, including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and volatile organic compounds,” the study states. “Depending on the materials burned, heavy metals like lead and mercury can also be emitted.”
‘Decades of Poor Decisions’
Public officials could have greatly reduced the damage to health, lives, and property from the fires that broke out on January 7, says Craig Rucker, president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.
“The massive wildfires laying waste to greater Los Angeles are the result of decades of poor decisions by state and local officials,” said Rucker. “Firefighters lack sufficient water with which to combat the inferno.
“California has not built a reservoir since 1978, even though its population has doubled since then,” said Rucker. “The Golden State is occasionally subject to heavy rains and snowfall in the mountains. The excess water could have been stored in reservoirs for use in an emergency like today’s, but nothing was done. Southern California’s semi-arid, windy climate is an open invitation to the spread of wildfires.”
The state government failed to clear potential fire fuel, says Rucker.
“Not enough dead and diseased trees have been removed from the state’s forests, and dry brush has been allowed to accumulate on rangeland,” said Rucker. “Rather than take responsibility for their gross negligence, state officials blame ‘climate change’ for the calamity they helped create. California’s climate has not changed in centuries. What has turned a paradise into a hellscape is the complete incompetence with which officials in Sacramento have mismanaged the state’s natural resources.”
Vape Ban Contribution
Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the Center for Consumer Choice, points to a little-noticed contributor to the outbreak of wildfires in California.
“One component of that stench coming out of Los Angeles is hypocrisy,” said Stier. “In 2019, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors banned the use of non-combustible cigarettes on beaches and in parks because of an unsubstantiated claim of air pollution. The feckless lawmakers only made matters worse for wildfire risk, which is a real, imminent, and predictable source of dangerous air pollution. Instead of taking responsibility, they predictably shifted it, without scientific evidence, to climate change.”
By the last week of January, 29 people had lost their lives in the wildfires, 17,000 structures had been destroyed, and tens of thousands of people had been forced from their homes, NBC News reported.
Bonner Russell Cohen, Ph.D., ([email protected]) is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.