Maui fires could pose health risks due to chemicals in air, water

Maui residents who breathed contaminated air or searched the rubble without protective equipment after the fires may have been exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.

The fires that have been burning in Maui since Tuesday could pose long-term health risks to residents due to chemical compounds contaminating the air, water and wreckage, authorities and experts have warned.

The Hawaii State Health Department cautioned Friday that ash and dust from burned buildings might carry toxic chemicals like asbestos and lead. Many destroyed buildings in Lahaina — the hardest-hit community — may have contained these chemicals because they were built before lead and asbestos were phased out of construction in the 1970s.

"Things like lead and asbestos are sort of top of the list. Those are things that are in paint, in buildings, and then do not really get destroyed with burning, so they're now in the ash and the dust," said Diana Felton, Hawaii's state toxicologist.

Felton said that there is some concern that people in Lahaina might inhale lead and asbestos particles in the air but that the bigger worry is that residents might unintentionally ingest the chemicals if they get on clothes or hands.

The fires may also have stirred up arsenic in the soil, because the chemical was used as an herbicide in parts of Hawaii — particularly sugar cane and pineapple fields — in the early 1900s, Felton said. The chemical binds tightly to the dirt, she added, so it is most likely to be found in dust and ash.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/maui-fires-chemicals-air-water-health-risks-rcna99843

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