Heavy Metal Contamination from Moss Landing BESS Fire Found

New data collected by nearby residents after the Moss Landing battery fire and tested by a private lab shows heavy metals in surface dust miles from the scene -- at levels that one toxicologist calls “concerning.”
“Something came out of that plant that's hurting people, and it's still happening,” said Brian Roeder, a co-founder of the activist group Never Again Moss Landing who led the dust sampling effort.
In late January, volunteers took more than 100 dust samples around Prunedale, Castroville and other areas around the plant that caught fire on Jan. 16.
“There is reason to be concerned,” Don Smith, an environmental toxicologist at UC Santa Cruz who specializes in heavy metals, said of the of the findings.
The dust residents collected using swab samples taken from flat, non-metallic surfaces reflects notably higher levels of nickel, cobalt and manganese, the three major components of lithium-ion batteries, Smith says.
All three elements have potential short-term and long-term health effects, including respiratory inflammation, triggered when microscopic particles get trapped deep in the lungs, he says.
to read the article, click here: Heavy metals found in dust miles from Moss Landing battery fire – NBC Bay Area