In Los Angeles, people snap up air filters and wear masks against smoke pollution
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With levels of sooty air pollution far too high across swaths of the Los Angeles area, Dana Benton is sleeping with a mask on, even with her air purifier running. “My car was just covered in ash, and it’s just disgusting to think that we could be inhaling that,” the Chinatown resident said, through an N95 mask outside a Sprouts grocery store in the Mid-City neighborhood. That's not where she lives. Like thousands of residents, she's left home to get away from the smoke. Now she and her cat are staying with her parents.
It’s not like a campfire, she said, “even though it smells like one.” The 30-year-old worries about plastic, asbestos and other toxins released from homes and businesses as wildfires rage through several Los Angeles neighborhoods; her eyes and throat have been burning even though she keeps her windows closed, air filter running on high and mostly has been staying indoors.
“All those microparticles are going into our lungs," she said. "It’s really very concerning ... I can’t even think about the long-term repercussions, health wise, for everybody from all of this.”. She's not wrong. Small particles can provoke a range of health problems, including breathing and heart issues. Across Southern California, people are taking precautions as the air quality index — a measure that includes fine particles — reached hazardous levels for some neighborhoods, including Pasadena.
Air purifiers in Home Depots around Central Los Angeles are sold out. Dr. Puneet Gupta, assistant medical director for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said emergency room doctors tell him people with breathing problems are coming in by ambulance, driving themselves and with family.
