As fires continue their rampage through Southern California, the
skies around UCLA are growing darker and murkier.
But according to experts, the stifling air quality should not
last long and should not do any permanent damage.
“Conditions should start improving (today),” said
Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the Air Quality Management District.
“There should be improved air quality (today), even better on
Thursday and even better by Friday.”
“Within three to five days after the fires are fully
extinguished, air will be completely cleared up,” Atwood
added.
The predicted improvement in pollution today is caused by the
reversal of the Santa Ana condition, a weather pattern affecting
the greater Los Angeles area, Atwood said.
The Santa Ana winds are generally warm, dry winds that originate
from the east over the Great Basin. As the winds move west toward
the coast, they compress, making them warmer and very strong.
“When (the Santa Ana wind) hits the coasts, it’s so
dry and hot, anything that sparks will go up in flames,” said
John Kennedy, manager of the technical support office for the air
division in the Environmental Protection Agency.
But the change in winds should serve to reverse the process,
and, instead of spreading the fires, should disperse the pollution
caused by them.
Though improvement is coming, there is still much pollution
affecting Los Angeles’ air quality.
Suzanne Paulson, a member of the UCLA Institute of the
Environment, said particulate and ozone pollutants are about double
the normal rates, accounting for the first time in several years
that West Los Angeles has gone over the federally set ozone
standard.
Because of this increase, residents in smoky areas should
monitor the time and activities they spend outside.
“Students who are healthy and normal are may be
experiencing scratchiness in their voices or tightness in their
throats,” Paulson said. “But once the fires are over
that will all go away.
“The larger particles will get filtered out in the upper
airways, but the smaller particles can go into the deep lungs. It
is a very effective way of delivering toxicity into the
lungs,” she said.
Paulson remained relatively unconcerned regarding the long term
effects on both students’ health and on the environment,
advising students to simply stay inside and to take it easy.
Meanwhile, the pollution outside will continue to disperse.
“Typically forest fires add a blast of pollutants into the
atmosphere,” Kennedy said. “Most of the matter then
dissipates in the atmosphere and settles out.”
Paulson said pollution caused by the fire will simply add to the
background pollution of the globe.
“From a global point of view, it is not that
significant,” Paulson said. “It will be overshadowed by
other pollution.”