XPost: alt.los-angeles, alt.home.repair, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — “DANGER: Lead Work Area” reads a sign on a front   
   door of an Altadena home. “May damage fertility or the unborn child.   
   Causes damage to the central nervous system.”   
      
   Block after block there are reminders that contaminants still linger.   
      
   House cleaners, hazardous waste workers and homeowners alike come and go   
   wearing masks, respirators, gloves and hazmat suits as they wipe, vacuum   
   and power-wash homes that weren’t burnt to ash.   
      
   It’s been a year of heartbreak and worry since the most destructive   
   wildfires in the Los Angeles area’s history scorched neighborhoods and   
   displaced tens of thousands of people. Two wind-whipped blazes that   
   ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, killed at least 31 people and destroyed nearly   
   17,000 structures, including homes, schools, businesses and places of   
   worship. Rebuilding will take years.   
      
   The disaster has brought another wave of trauma for people afraid of   
   what still lurks inside their homes.   
      
   Indoor air quality after wildfires remains understudied, and scientists   
   still don’t know the long-term health impacts of exposure to massive   
   urban fires like last year’s in Los Angeles. But some chemicals released   
   are known to be linked to heart disease and lung issues, and exposure to   
   minerals like magnetite has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease.   
      
   Ash in the area is a toxic soup of incinerated cars, electronics,   
   paints, furniture and every other kind of personal belonging. It can   
   contain pesticides, asbestos, plastics, lead or other heavy metals.   
      
   Many with homes still standing are now living with the hazards left by   
   the fires.   
      
   People forced back into their Altadena homes   
   Nina and Billy Malone considered their home of 20 years a safe haven   
   before smoke, ash and soot seeped inside, leaving behind harmful levels   
   of lead even after professional cleaning. Recent testing found the toxin   
   is still on the wooden floors of their living room and bedroom.   
      
   They were forced to move back home in August anyway, after insurance cut   
   off their rental assistance.   
      
   Since then, Nina wakes up almost daily with a sore throat and headaches.   
   Billy had to get an inhaler for his worsening wheezing and congestion.   
   And their bedroom, Nina said, smells “like an ashtray has been sitting   
   around for a long time.” She worries most about exposure to unregulated   
   contaminants that insurance companies aren’t required to test.   
      
   “I don’t feel comfortable in the space,” said Nina, whose neighbors’   
   homes burned down across the street.   
      
   They’re not alone.   
      
   Data shows dangerous lead levels still in homes   
   According to a report released in November by the Eaton Fire Residents   
   United, a volunteer group formed by residents, six out of 10 homes   
   damaged from smoke from the Eaton Fire still have dangerous levels of   
   cancer-causing asbestos, brain-damaging lead or both. That’s based on   
   self-submitted data from 50 homeowners who have cleaned their homes,   
   with 78% hiring professional cleaners.   
      
   Of the 50 homes, 63% have lead levels above the Environmental Protection   
   Agency’s standard, according to the report. The average lead levels were   
   almost 60 times higher than the EPA’s rule.   
      
   Even after fires were extinguished, volatile organic compounds from   
   smoke, some known to cause cancer, lingered inside of people’s homes,   
   according to a recent study. To mitigate these risks, residents   
   returning home should ventilate and filter indoor air by opening windows   
   or running high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifiers with   
   charcoal filters.   
      
   Zoe Gonzalez Izquierdo said she can’t get her insurance company to pay   
   for an adequate cleanup of her family’s Altadena home, which tested   
   positive for dangerous levels of lead and other toxic compounds.   
      
   “They can’t just send a company that’s not certified to just wipe things   
   down so that then we can go back to a still contaminated home,” Gonzalez   
   said, who has children ages 2 and 4.   
      
   Experts believe the lead, which can linger in dust on floors and   
   windowsills, comes from burned lead paint. The University of Southern   
   California reported that more than 70% of homes within the Eaton Fire   
   were built before 1979, when lead paint was common.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)