What’s the pink powder sprayed over the California wildfires?
The first objective of the pink dye is solely to assist firefighters and pilots be correct in creating and figuring out strains of retardant.
“Basically, it lets pilots see the place strains are dropped,” Horn mentioned. “If it was clear, they wouldn’t know the place the retardant strains are.”
Phos-Chek can fade over time in daylight and be washed off with water, so it doesn’t completely stain a panorama.
Neptune Aviation, a Montana-based air tanker firm, is among the many companies at the moment delivering hearth retardant to areas affected by the fires. The corporate contracts with the U.S. Forest Service and California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety (Cal Fireplace).
Nic Lynn, Neptune Aviation’s vice chairman of operations, mentioned three of the corporate’s air tankers are in use in Southern California. The planes use designated, government-established air tanker bases, he defined.
“We go to these pre-established tanker bases, the place they combine the retardant and pump it into the airplanes. Form of consider us like we’re a dump truck. We’ll carry the product from A to B,” he mentioned.
Neptune Aviation has carried out not less than 93 missions and delivered extra 280,000 gallons of retardant to fight the fires, Lynn added.
To guard ecosystems, the Forest Service and the Division of the Inside require planes to keep away from dropping hearth retardant inside 300 toes of waterways (floor deliveries should additionally keep away from waterways). Some exceptions will be made, nevertheless, together with if “potential harm to pure sources outweighs attainable lack of aquatic life,” in keeping with the Forest Service.
The first environmental concern related to the retardant is the presence of heavy metals. A examine final yr recommended that one model of Phos-Chek had increased ranges of metals like cadmium and chromium than is taken into account secure in keeping with regulatory thresholds. Heavy metals should not instantly added to the product however might come from naturally occurring impurities.
Horn, nevertheless, mentioned that the model of Phos-Chek being dropped in California is “a special product from years in the past.”
Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental well being sciences on the College of California, Los Angeles Fielding Faculty of Public Well being, mentioned the advantages of utilizing hearth retardants outweigh the dangers.
“There’s little or no proof exhibiting there are severe long-term well being results related to it” for individuals, Zhu mentioned.
She added that the quick well being dangers posed by wildfire smoke, which accommodates excessive ranges of particulate matter, are extra extreme than potential considerations linked to the fireplace retardant.
Publicity to smoke air pollution could cause a spread of respiratory and cardiovascular points, comparable to issue respiratory, bronchitis or coronary heart assaults, in keeping with the Environmental Safety Company.
