What Is Not Being Discussed About the LA Fires. [View all]

It is well known, and widely reported in the scientific literature, that health risks from wildfires in terms of air pollutants exist and are profound. Since 2021, Google Scholar reports over 21,000 papers on the topic.

Based on the search terms I used, there are far fewer concerning residential fires, and the toxicology of the smoke.

Here's one open sourced paper on the topic I came across: Horn, G.P., Dow, N.W. & Neumann, D.L. Pilot Study on Fire Effluent Condensate from Full Scale Residential Fires. Fire Technol 60, 1–18 (2024)

I don't have any special insight to this topic, but it occurs to me that burning residential (and commercial) buildings in the LA area should generate a set of volatile pollutants very similar to those generated in the World Trade Center Attack and subsequent fires.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, our residences, when combusted, are a toxicological nightmare of polymers, electronics (containing a plethora of potentially volatilizable and highly toxic metals) and (believe it or not) toxic flame retardants, solvents and other chemicals.

The health consequences of these fires will persist for decades.

Things will get worse, not better, as extreme global heating accelerates, an acceleration that will increase (the third derivative) with time given the international (and notably in the suicidal United States) deliberate embrace of ignorance.