Hexavalent chromium nanoparticles were found in air samples gathered by researchers over the course of several days in the spring as they drove through and around the Eaton and Palisades fire burn areas.
The heavy metal — also known as chromium-6 and brought to public consciousness by environmentalist Erin Brockovich in the 1990s — is a known carcinogen. But researchers aren’t yet sure what the public health implications are.
“ We think that there's hotspots in the cities, but we don't have a way to quantify that yet with what we've measured so far,” said Michael Kleeman, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.
Kleeman was the lead author of a paper that’s been submitted to the journal Nature’s Communications Earth and Environment for peer review and published online as a preprint. The researchers are part of the L.A. Fire Health Study, a group of universities working together to investigate the health effects of the January fires.
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