News

AirUCI faculty Jim Randerson is quoted in a January 15th article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the real causes of the firestorm ravaging Los Angeles.  While it’s hard to attribute individual events to climate change, it’s abnormal for wildfires—like those in Los Angeles—to happen during January, but very dry conditions as well as hurricane-force winds helped set the city ablaze.  Winter is the rainy season in Southern California, said Jim, and he can’t remember a time when it has not rained this far into January.  Even an inch of rainfall would have helped hydrate shrubs before the Santa Ana winds kicked up. “That water shuts down any wind-driven fire,” Jim said.  Read the article

In a January 14th interview on LAist, the Pasadena PBS station, AirUCI faculty Mike Kleinman is asked about the safety of the air after the firestorm that devastated large regions in the Los Angeles area.  The article provides information about how to protect yourself and children from toxins in the air, made worse by the dry weather conditions.  An extensive list of precautions is provided.  " Even though the ambient air, the outside air, is relatively clean, the air inside the home may be worse," Mike said.  " Don't take your outer clothing that you wore into the fire zone and then wash it with the family laundry, because whatever toxic chemicals are there are going to be spread around."  Read the article

AirUCI faculty Andrea De Vizcaya Ruiz was asked for comments on an article in TheKitchn.com about the risks to lung health associated with quartz countertops.  These are human-made engineered stone countertops formed by combining about 90% ground quartz (a natural hard mineral) with 8 to 10% resins, polymers, and pigments.  “Workers who perform countertop fabrication, including cutting, drilling, and grinding, generate crushed materials or dust that is small enough to get into the deep airways, causing irreversible lung damage,” says Andrea De Vizcaya Ruiz.  Read the article