Experts urge further study into potential long-term health impacts of Lahaina wildfire

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - There’s growing concern about the potential long-term health impacts to Lahaina residents of the catastrophic wildfire.

Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, is in Hawaii to talk about air quality and health and on Tuesday he gave a talk at AlohaCare’s offices in Honolulu.

He says he expects most immediate health impacts from the wildfires to subside, but it’s still unknown what the longer-term impacts might be.

Lahaina resident Nathalia Cardenas Haro says her family members were stuck in traffic while escaping the Lahaina wildfire.

“They were in the car with the windows rolled up so they were a little bit safer, but my mom does have little bit of asthma so we’ll see how that’s going to impact her,” she said.

She’s worried about their longer term lung health after exposure to the smoke and ash. Many West Maui residents share that concern especially as area schools reopen later this month.

“The schools are very close to the impacted area,” said Haro.

Rizzo says smoke and toxic ash may cause pre-existing conditions like asthma and COPD to flare up.

“Certainly if they’ve had pre-existing conditions, it’s so important to keep them abreast of how the child is doing and it may not be the child is going to complain about certain symptoms,” said Rizzo.

The state’s health maps of Maui show the air quality is good.

Special Section: Maui Wildfires Disaster

But Pedro Haro, executive director of the Lung Association in Hawaii, says anecdotally people are getting sick. “What we hear a lot is a persistent cough is what we are hearing and that is a lung health issue,” said Haro. “We are hearing about people having to go into the hospital.”

As families return to their burned homes, Lung officials say it’s important for people to wear full protective gear including an N95 mask.

They’re working to bring more air purifiers to Maui along with more asthma education.

The Lung Association says there needs to be health registry set up for long term monitoring. It’s hoping one could be set up through Congress with federal funding.

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