Emergency room visits for heart attacks increased by 46% within the 90 days following the start of the January wildfires in Los Angeles, according to a study released Wednesday by Cedars-Sinai Hospital, which also found increases in consultations for lung diseases and general illnesses. The analysis of cases treated by the emergency department of the Los Angeles medical center from January 7 to April 7, 2025, found a 118% increase in visits for general illnesses compared to the average rate during the same period in the last seven years. In detail, researchers detected a 46% increase in the number of visits for heart attack and a 24% increase in visits for lung diseases compared to the average rate of these conditions diagnosed in the emergency room between 2018 and 2024. The main complex of Cedars-Sinai is located about 16 kilometers from Pacific Palisades and about 32 kilometers from Altadena, the areas where the largest wildfires in Los Angeles originated in January 2025, so the data analysis shows a picture of how the fires that resulted in 31 deaths affected the community in general. «Wildfires that spread to urban areas have proven to be extremely dangerous due to the speed at which they spread and what they burn and release into the environment,» said Susan Cheng, vice president of Research Affairs in the Department of Cardiology of the Smidt Heart Institute and lead author of the study, in a statement. The researcher emphasized that the research suggests that the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires «had an immediate effect» on people's health. Cheng's biggest concern is the fine particles released by the wildfires, which can enter the body and cause damage, particularly to the heart and lungs. Additionally, she indicated that stress related to the fires can contribute to a wide range of health problems. The researchers also discovered that abnormal blood test results related to general illnesses more than doubled during the 90-day period in 2025 compared to the same period in previous years. This finding had not been previously reported after major wildfires, highlights the study published in the Journal of The American College of Cardiology (JACC). «Abnormal blood test results could indicate that the body is responding to an external stress factor, such as toxins in the air,» said Dr. Joseph Ebinger, the study's author. Ebinger valued that the analysis is «an important step» to understand how the Eaton and Palisades fires may have affected the health of Los Angeles residents. He specified that more research is needed to determine what can be done to mitigate the risks and protect people from the damage caused by fires in the future.
