Assessing the environmental toll on LA

As of Feb. 3, the Palisades and Eaton fire have been 100 percent contained. With the fires finished, many in the Los Angeles County Community are now faced with challenging environmental changes that have followed as a result.

While the majority of LA County has been listed on the air quality index as good to moderate for several weeks, air quality tracks the size of particulates in the air, not their toxicity. Certain harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, appear as gas- imperceptible to the air quality index. Formaldehyde exposure can irritate the eyes, throat and nose for short periods. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, long exposure can lead to death by throat swelling or chemical burns in the lungs. 

Katie Gershuni, Samo’s health office specialist, discusses the potential dangers of these toxins and how students can stay safe.  

“When it’s wildfire smoke,” Gershuni said. “You have to think about what's being burned. It’s the plastic, it’s people’s homes. So it’s the couches, it’s the wall material, it’s any insulation. All that stuff is toxic, so that's what you're breathing in. That’s why they were recommending the K95 masks. It helps prevent those tiny particles that you inhale into your lungs that can cause further issues.”

With the recent rain, water runoff has become an issue. Samo’s Marine Biology and Environmental Science teacher, Benjamin Kay, has heavily researched this issue..

“Urban runoff in particular, as well as natural runoff, now contains ash and a bunch of these heavy metals and other air toxics,” Kay said.“The soot and ash have fallen all over our community and we’ve had that big first round of rains, we know that there are now a lot of toxic chemicals downstream of us in the ocean.” 

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Deer making their way through devestated Will Rodgers Park.

The runoff may sweep contaminants such as ash from the ground and seep into the groundwater or the ocean- causing unswimmable oceans or non-drinkable groundwater. Ash contains a myriad of heavy metals- lead, arsenic, copper and cobalt. Lead can lead to irreversible brain damage, long-term arsenic exposure can cause cancer, copper can cause liver failure and cobalt can cause adverse effects to blood and thyroid. Kay explained how the runoff, with all its pollutants and trash, can cause sea life suffocation, toxic chemical exposure and much more. 

“We do know that some of the chemicals in the fire that ended up in the ash and soot are hard to break down because humans created them,” Kay said. “Generally speaking, nature is not very good at digesting and decomposing and breaking down and recycling chemicals created by humans. Therefore, hence the advisories put out by LA county, no one is supposed to be going into the ocean water right now.”

Julia Faber (’25), co-president of the Samo Environmental Defence Club, believes that students at Samo can take measures into their own hands, helping alleviate the marine-related environmental effects of the fires.  

“For the beach we all go to, Santa Monica,” Faber said. “It’s really dirty right now. There’s a lot of ash everywhere. I think that taking part in and planning beach cleanups will be a great way to clean up our home beach.” 

The earth was also affected by the fires. The firefighters used salt water to try and put it out, which can increase the salinity of the soil. This has killed some plants that cannot survive such salty conditions and may leave the landscape barren for years as seeds won’t germinate. This barren landscape can be easily eroded, leading to a higher risk of mudslides, desertification and pollution- as the dirt is dragged by runoff. 

The environment will be heavily affected by the fires- toxic chemicals in the air, the water and the earth. Charred hills are likely to stay barren from saltwater use, sea creatures are likely to die from the chemicals and plastics imputed by the water runoff- especially now that it has rained. 

With all of the environmental changes discussed prior, their effect and its duration, will be a consistent discussion for years to come.