Authors
Haroula D Baliaka, Ryan X Ward, Sean M Raffuse, Bradley Ries, Yumeng Cui, Dien Wu, Ruizhe Liu, Can Barut, Sina Hasheminassab, François L H Tissot, Armistead G Russell, John H Seinfeld, Richard C Flagan, Roya Bahreini, Paul O Wennberg, Nga L Ng
Published in
Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 44. Pages eaei4455. Oct 30, 2026. Epub Oct 28, 2026.
Abstract
Urban fire smoke is chemically distinct from wildland fire smoke yet remains poorly understood. Using real-time airborne trace element measurements during the 2025 Los Angeles Eaton urban firestorm, we show that the plume evolved rapidly as fire transitioned from structures to wildland, tracked hourly by the potassium-to-lead ratio. Compared to wildfire smoke, the urban plume was enriched more than 50-fold in lead, 7-fold in halogens, and 3-fold in arsenic, a toxic mixture linked to burning vehicles, electronics, and building materials, a fundamentally different fuel from conventional wildland vegetation. During peak structural burning, we estimate that approximately 7 million residents (range, 4.3 to 8.0 million) experienced 24-hour lead concentrations exceeding 50 nanograms per cubic meter, over 80 times background levels. Unlike wildfire smoke that has been the focus of decades of air quality research, this plume represents an emerging class of urban fire air pollution that demands revised exposure frameworks and emergency response protocols as fires increasingly burn into cities.
PMID:
42950059
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Oct 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 17
- Comments 0