UCLA put out a helpful guide regarding how to deal with air quality after the fires.
Please read here.
Key takeaways from UCLA Newsroom
- Particulate matter from burned structures has led to dangerous chemicals such as lead, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and asbestos in the air.
- Get pros to clean in severely burn-impacted areas. They can minimize their exposure with better PPE, properly dispose of debris and minimize resuspension in the process.
- When air sensors are green, or for most people, yellow, and no obvious ash is floating around, there is no reason to curtail activity.
According to UCLA, for rapidly changing conditions and highly localized pollution sources like fires, it’s best to rely on a dense network of real-time sensors such as purpleair, clarity and fire.airnow.gov, rather than from the air quality index, or AQI, on a weather app.
Key takeaways from my visit to Disaster Assistance location in West Los Angeles today:
About toxic air quality: I learned LA public health will likely start looking into monitoring the toxic air from housing/car/batteries burning. This type of air quality monitoring is different (and more expensive apparently) than what SCAQMD typically monitors.
About lithium-ion batteries: If your property or those near you burned, use extreme caution when returning to your property. Damaged or destroyed lithium-ion batteries, storage systems, and electric and hybrid vehicles should be considered extremely dangerous, even if they look intact. These batteries can spontaneously re-ignite, explode and emit toxic gases and particulates even after the fire is out. Other household items with lithium-ion batteries: Electric and hybrid bikes, wheelchairs, digital cameras, home alarms, power banks, game controllers, home energy storage systems, personal mobility device, scooters, drones, tablets, power tools, vaping devices.
The EPA has been assigned to remove these lithium-ion batteries affected by Los Angeles County wildfires.
This includes:
recovery
safe transportation
processing (de-energizing)
safe disposal
For more information: epa.gov/california-wildfires 1-833-798-7372
Help with ash and debris removal: I hopefully will update. I found a volunteer organization at Disaster Assistance and misplaced the information. Meanwhile, I found this information ash removal from governor's office.
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