Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everyone. Among the ashes and scattered rubble of
what was lost lies another potential danger, one not exactly
visible to the naked eye. Growing health concerns for some
of the first responders who rushed into flames in desperate
attempts to save lives and homes, and this is the
new concern. Some are even drawing parallels to the medical
(00:21):
aftermath of nine to eleven. In tonight's prime focus, our
Mac Gutman investigates what's being done to protect the health
of those who protect us? Will Rogers.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's Los Angeles Fire Captain Eric Scott in the initial
hours of the Palisades fire. The flame's bellowing down the canyons,
tearing through the streets below. When did you know that
this was going to be different than almost anything you've
ever dealt with?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That night of January seventh, the wind was unlike anything
I've ever seen before.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Scott started his career as a firefighter paramedic.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's a very fast moving fire.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now he's the public face of the LA Fire Department.
How many days are you out there working on that fire?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
For me, I was out there personally for twenty eight days,
so that was by far the longest deployment I've had,
and over the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
This fire is crested. This little hill we're on the
entire basin here is engulfed in flames, film. More than
sixteen thousand homes burned in the Eton and palis Ages fires,
and thousands of vehicles, the fires cooking off a toxic
brew of contaminants. Were you wearing a mask the first
(01:42):
few days?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
We do the best we can. We carry masks with
us hoods, bandanas, but in a wildfire, it's twenty thirty
days sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But now, nearly six months after thousands of firefighters battled
those infernos. Initially focused on public health and safety, many
are now finding it's their own health on the line.
So you just pulled an inhaler from your pocket, right,
You never told me about that? You were actually still
using it?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yes, yeah, just to be able to open up your
lungs when you have difficult days.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's a bit of a gut punch.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Firefighters in general are dealing with that all over.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Scott says he himself began experiencing respiratory issues while the
Palisades fire was still burning.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For me, it was just started with a persistent cough
that was annoying and didn't go away.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
A number of different studies are now monitoring firefighter exposures
to toxic contaminants from the LA wildfires, using everything from
donated tissue samples to silicon wristbands that some of the
firefighters wore as they battled the fires, which are now
being measured for contaminant absorption.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
And here we can see the difference.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
One study already reporting preliminary results from blood of a
small sample of firefighters who responded in LA.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
We found high amounts of lead in the blood of
firefighters as well as mercury, and that also is consistent
with the fact that those two toxic metals were very
high in the air about two days before we collected
the blood.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Doctor Carrie Nadeau at the Harvard Medical School is part
of the LA Fire Health Study, a ten year collaboration
of a number of different institutions working to assess the
health impacts of the wildfire emissions.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We're really excited to be able to help our science
get to the public in real time to help understand
both the short term and long term effects of wildfire smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
The researchers have already been able to trace lead and
mercury in those initial findings all the way to the
cells of the firefighters, and these are toxic metals that
could have potential consequences down the line.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
They affect the DNA so that the DNA is changed
in its function. In this regard, the wildfire's smoke miscues
the immune system so that it gets activated in a
chronic way, so that it causes a lot of inflammation
that can lead to diseases like lung disease, heart disease,
(04:27):
brain diseases, cancer.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
At Cedar Sinai, doctor Susan Chang is studying the health
impacts among both civilians and firefighters, impacts, she says, are already.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Occurring that's actually translated to health outcomes that we're starting
to see. We start to see them in our emergency rooms,
in our clinics, and we're seeing the after effects take
place even beyond those areas.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
While doctors can't say with certainty that any one toxin
cause someone's cancer, studies estimate that people exposed to wildfires
smoke face higher risks of cancer, respiratory disease, and immune
system changes as these wildfires become larger, more intense and
more destructive. More firefighters across the country are being called in.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Wildfire is predominantly a West coast issue. We're now seeing
wildfires from coast to coast.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Edward Kelly is the president of the International Association of
Firefighters Union.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
We don't have anything on the market right now that
is adequate to protect us from these exposures, and when
we're fighting these.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Wildfires, occupational hazards are still a chief concern in this
line of work.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
The fact is the actual exposures we endure during the
course of a career take a greater toll than the
risk when we put our lives on the line day
and dale going out the door. Testimony to that is
the fact that we've lost more firefighters in New York
City from their exposures working at Ground zero than we
did on nine to eleven.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
My name is Michael O'Connell and i'm retired lieutenant from
the New York City Apartment Well to personally thank the
committee members for allowing me to be here today to
tell my story, which is really no different from the
thousands of others who suffer from their heroic actions. These
are the adults that you know, we've got passed.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Now retired Lieutenant Michael O'Connell has become an advocate for
continued funding for nine to eleven responders.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
We went days with nothing and then I want to say,
maybe a few days in they gave you irregular painter's
dusk masks. I think maybe by the next week. I
remember having like a mask that had like a respirator.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
In the years after he was diagnosed with an autoimmune
disease called sarcodosis related to his nine to eleven exposure,
I live.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
With this on a daily basis of so many people
are still getting sick and dying.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
People are describing this as a nine to eleven type
event for first responders. Is that something that concerns you.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, of course it's concerning. We know the significant cancer
and desk that transpired, so they're learning best practices and
we're trying to bring that information here to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And experts are hopeful the work being done now will
help firefighters in the future.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
There are therapies that can help prevent worsening of inflammation.
There are therapies that if you can detect it early,
you can get in early and try to prevent the
worstening of cancer, for example, or the worstening of dementia,
or the worstening of asthma, and detecting it early matters.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
There is no doubt it's a long road ahead for
Los Angeles, uncertainty for those who lost so much, including
some of the first responders who rushed in to try
to save what and who they could captain. Scott's respiratory
issues are ongoing and he continues to see a pomonologist.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
We really encourage our membership to go to annual full
physical checkout to get a baseline. Yes, and you'll have
an idea when things are spiking and not just try
to be macho and put it off. But we've got
to try to take care of ourselves for the long haul.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And what remained strong, perhaps stronger than ever might be
the oath of the firefighter.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
This is something we signed up for, and we're there
to protect life and property, and we take the precautions
that we can and we move forward.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I mean, does it feel like you're mortgaging your future
in order to do your job now to.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Some extent, yeah, I mean I don't concentrate on that,
and I think you know, I'm just a spokesperson for
all firefighters and we're kind of built the same way.
We're there to mitigate the emergency, to help those that
we are sworn to serve, and at times that will
and does come at our own risk.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Part of what makes them so heroic. Our thanks to
Mac Upman for that
Welcome back everyone. Among the ashes and scattered rubble of
what was lost lies another potential danger, one not exactly
visible to the naked eye. Growing health concerns for some
of the first responders who rushed into flames in desperate
attempts to save lives and homes, and this is the
new concern. Some are even drawing parallels to the medical
(00:21):
aftermath of nine to eleven. In tonight's prime focus, our
Mac Gutman investigates what's being done to protect the health
of those who protect us? Will Rogers.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's Los Angeles Fire Captain Eric Scott in the initial
hours of the Palisades fire. The flame's bellowing down the canyons,
tearing through the streets below. When did you know that
this was going to be different than almost anything you've
ever dealt with?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That night of January seventh, the wind was unlike anything
I've ever seen before.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Scott started his career as a firefighter paramedic.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's a very fast moving fire.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now he's the public face of the LA Fire Department.
How many days are you out there working on that fire?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
For me, I was out there personally for twenty eight days,
so that was by far the longest deployment I've had,
and over the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
This fire is crested. This little hill we're on the
entire basin here is engulfed in flames, film. More than
sixteen thousand homes burned in the Eton and palis Ages fires,
and thousands of vehicles, the fires cooking off a toxic
brew of contaminants. Were you wearing a mask the first
(01:42):
few days?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
We do the best we can. We carry masks with
us hoods, bandanas, but in a wildfire, it's twenty thirty
days sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But now, nearly six months after thousands of firefighters battled
those infernos. Initially focused on public health and safety, many
are now finding it's their own health on the line.
So you just pulled an inhaler from your pocket, right,
You never told me about that? You were actually still
using it?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yes, yeah, just to be able to open up your
lungs when you have difficult days.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's a bit of a gut punch.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Firefighters in general are dealing with that all over.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Scott says he himself began experiencing respiratory issues while the
Palisades fire was still burning.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For me, it was just started with a persistent cough
that was annoying and didn't go away.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
A number of different studies are now monitoring firefighter exposures
to toxic contaminants from the LA wildfires, using everything from
donated tissue samples to silicon wristbands that some of the
firefighters wore as they battled the fires, which are now
being measured for contaminant absorption.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
And here we can see the difference.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
One study already reporting preliminary results from blood of a
small sample of firefighters who responded in LA.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
We found high amounts of lead in the blood of
firefighters as well as mercury, and that also is consistent
with the fact that those two toxic metals were very
high in the air about two days before we collected
the blood.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Doctor Carrie Nadeau at the Harvard Medical School is part
of the LA Fire Health Study, a ten year collaboration
of a number of different institutions working to assess the
health impacts of the wildfire emissions.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We're really excited to be able to help our science
get to the public in real time to help understand
both the short term and long term effects of wildfire smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
The researchers have already been able to trace lead and
mercury in those initial findings all the way to the
cells of the firefighters, and these are toxic metals that
could have potential consequences down the line.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
They affect the DNA so that the DNA is changed
in its function. In this regard, the wildfire's smoke miscues
the immune system so that it gets activated in a
chronic way, so that it causes a lot of inflammation
that can lead to diseases like lung disease, heart disease,
(04:27):
brain diseases, cancer.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
At Cedar Sinai, doctor Susan Chang is studying the health
impacts among both civilians and firefighters, impacts, she says, are already.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Occurring that's actually translated to health outcomes that we're starting
to see. We start to see them in our emergency rooms,
in our clinics, and we're seeing the after effects take
place even beyond those areas.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
While doctors can't say with certainty that any one toxin
cause someone's cancer, studies estimate that people exposed to wildfires
smoke face higher risks of cancer, respiratory disease, and immune
system changes as these wildfires become larger, more intense and
more destructive. More firefighters across the country are being called in.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Wildfire is predominantly a West coast issue. We're now seeing
wildfires from coast to coast.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Edward Kelly is the president of the International Association of
Firefighters Union.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
We don't have anything on the market right now that
is adequate to protect us from these exposures, and when
we're fighting these.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Wildfires, occupational hazards are still a chief concern in this
line of work.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
The fact is the actual exposures we endure during the
course of a career take a greater toll than the
risk when we put our lives on the line day
and dale going out the door. Testimony to that is
the fact that we've lost more firefighters in New York
City from their exposures working at Ground zero than we
did on nine to eleven.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
My name is Michael O'Connell and i'm retired lieutenant from
the New York City Apartment Well to personally thank the
committee members for allowing me to be here today to
tell my story, which is really no different from the
thousands of others who suffer from their heroic actions. These
are the adults that you know, we've got passed.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Now retired Lieutenant Michael O'Connell has become an advocate for
continued funding for nine to eleven responders.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
We went days with nothing and then I want to say,
maybe a few days in they gave you irregular painter's
dusk masks. I think maybe by the next week. I
remember having like a mask that had like a respirator.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
In the years after he was diagnosed with an autoimmune
disease called sarcodosis related to his nine to eleven exposure,
I live.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
With this on a daily basis of so many people
are still getting sick and dying.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
People are describing this as a nine to eleven type
event for first responders. Is that something that concerns you.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, of course it's concerning. We know the significant cancer
and desk that transpired, so they're learning best practices and
we're trying to bring that information here to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And experts are hopeful the work being done now will
help firefighters in the future.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
There are therapies that can help prevent worsening of inflammation.
There are therapies that if you can detect it early,
you can get in early and try to prevent the
worstening of cancer, for example, or the worstening of dementia,
or the worstening of asthma, and detecting it early matters.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
There is no doubt it's a long road ahead for
Los Angeles, uncertainty for those who lost so much, including
some of the first responders who rushed in to try
to save what and who they could captain. Scott's respiratory
issues are ongoing and he continues to see a pomonologist.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
We really encourage our membership to go to annual full
physical checkout to get a baseline. Yes, and you'll have
an idea when things are spiking and not just try
to be macho and put it off. But we've got
to try to take care of ourselves for the long haul.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And what remained strong, perhaps stronger than ever might be
the oath of the firefighter.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
This is something we signed up for, and we're there
to protect life and property, and we take the precautions
that we can and we move forward.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I mean, does it feel like you're mortgaging your future
in order to do your job now to.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Some extent, yeah, I mean I don't concentrate on that,
and I think you know, I'm just a spokesperson for
all firefighters and we're kind of built the same way.
We're there to mitigate the emergency, to help those that
we are sworn to serve, and at times that will
and does come at our own risk.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Part of what makes them so heroic. Our thanks to
Mac Upman for that
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