New bill targets wildfire smoke contamination rules for reoccupying homes
Iain Hoey
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Wildfire smoke standard proposed for home reoccupancy
A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would set statewide, science-based standards for deciding when a home is safe to live in after a wildfire.
The New York Times reported that Assemblymember John Harabedian, whose district includes Altadena, introduced Assembly Bill 1642 on Tuesday.
The bill calls for new health-based guidelines for testing and cleaning homes contaminated by toxic smoke, along with criteria for when a home is safe to reoccupy.
It would assign the California Department of Toxic Substances Control responsibility for developing and specifying the standards.
It would also shift post-fire safety decisions away from insurance companies and towards a public-health agency.
Investigations and background cited by the Times
California has no agreed-upon standards for how to test or clean homes affected by toxic smoke contamination.
The Times said this has allowed insurance companies to dictate what substances to test for and how to address contamination.
Harabedian said: “A lot of families are in this unfortunate and uncertain position of not knowing whether it’s safe to move back.”
“And that’s because there isn’t a statewide standard that is based on science.”
He added: “You would think that we would have a uniform post-fire safety standard and some sort of, you know, objective way of determining that.”
“Unfortunately, what we see is that there isn’t one.”
The Times said the bill was inspired by its earlier investigation into one family’s return to a contaminated home in Altadena.
For that earlier reporting, hair samples from each family member were analysed by a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The Times reported the tests found the couple and their two children had been exposed to a surge of heavy metals as soon as they returned home.
The article said smoke from modern fires can include gases containing neurotoxins and carcinogens when homes, cars, electronics and consumer goods burn.
It reported that, in Los Angeles County, State Farm and the California FAIR Plan have been placed under investigation in part for their handling of smoke claims.
It said that, in July, the California Department of Insurance created a task force intended to create post-fire remediation standards.
Senator Adam Schiff called for an investigation based on the Times’s findings about insurers’ use of science in smoke-related decisions.
Schiff wrote in an email to The Times: “As families impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires continue to recover and rebuild, it’s critical that insurance companies follow the science and the facts to ensure that families can safely return home, and any allegations of potential manipulation or misleading science should be investigated.”