Durban – Particles released as by-products from the fire that has been raging since Friday in South Coast Road could pose long-term side-effects for Durban residents.
Environmental epidemiology specialist and environmental health campaign manager at NGO Groundwork Rico Euripidou said the carbon emissions from the fire would be a product of how much carbon was burnt during the incident.
“Fires are among the single most carbon-intensive events. Additionally, in a typical factory fire with lots of black smoke these are also a major source of black carbon – also known as soot – which acts as a powerful but short-lived greenhouse gas and is one of the key drivers of man-made climate change. Globally, most household fire deaths are not caused by burns, but by smoke inhalation.”
The pollutants from a fire, he said, would be a product of what was in the fire.
“These can be bulk pollutants or in trace amounts. What we saw in this fire was a lot of black smoke and soot.”
He explained that these were highly noxious and could have a variety of respiratory health impacts.
Soot included fine black particles and was chiefly composed of carbon.
“However, it is produced by incomplete combustion of coal, oil, wood, or other fuels and can be comprised of acids, chemicals, metals, soils, and dust. If the soot particles are extremely tiny – 2.5 micrometers or smaller then they can be inhaled deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.”
This combination, said Euripidou was what made soot so dangerous.
He said: “In this instance, we were lucky that the plume did not appear to come to ground in such a way that whole neighbourhoods were consumed by dark smoke and soot."
“There was wind and rain which to an extent helped disperse the smoke away from the source.”
Health effects could include respiratory symptoms, asthma, decrements in lung function, emergency department visits and hospital admissions for infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Inhalation of these tiny particles had also been linked to cardiovascular disease and death.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that worldwide, 5% of cardiopulmonary deaths are due to particulate matter pollution. Long-term exposure can accelerate the development of atherosclerosis and increase emergency department visits and hospital admissions for ischemic heart disease and congestive heart failure.”
Euripidou said soot could also pose serious problems during and following a fire.
“Some compounds which make up the soot such as sulphur dioxides and nitrogen oxides combine with moisture to form acid rain, and can affect the water quality.”
He said that when major incidents happened, especially in heavily industrialised areas, then the emergency services tasked with protecting people, public health and the environment needed to be informed by an emergency preparedness plan.
“The plan will dictate how the public should be informed about potential health risks, the channels of communication, how to assess and measure risk, who and how to undertake environmental sampling to inform risk assessment, how to communicate with schools, hospitals, vulnerable populations, and so on whether by radio or other means.”
Vincenzo Sagnelli, an architect who lives in Durban North, said he noticed on Saturday morning that his Spanish-style house was streaked with soot. The pool was stained a blackish blue because of the soot.
“My car is silver grey so I didn’t notice the soot on it, but I took a closer look at it when I saw some of the white cars in the area. It just gives you a sense of some of the impacts we felt in this area.”
A Durban North social media user tweeted a picture of their pool with patches of black soot: “If this oily residue from the fire coats the surface of our pool 12km away, how is it affecting our lungs?”