Long After the Maui Fires, Toxic Metals Linger in Residents’ Bodies

Background. The 2023 Maui wildfires, particularly the destruction of Lāhainā in August 2023, occurred within a longer history of environmental and public-health vulnerability shaped by land use, colonization, and the growing intensity of wildfires linked to climate change.

Wildfires in the United States have grown significantly in scale and destructiveness since the late 20th century. Researchers and federal agencies have documented that urban-interface wildfires — fires that burn through towns and cities rather than only wildland — release a qualitatively different mix of toxins than forest fires, including heavy metals, asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and other contaminants from burning structures, vehicles, and infrastructure. Studies following the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California — which killed 85 people and destroyed roughly 19,000 structures — found elevated levels of benzene and other carcinogens in municipal water systems and soil, establishing a precedent for long-duration post-fire contamination in residential areas.

Hawaiʻi's land-use history is directly relevant to baseline environmental contamination. From the mid-19th century through much of the 20th century, large sugar and pineapple plantations dominated Maui's landscape. Plantation agriculture in Hawaiʻi involved extensive use of pesticides and herbicides, alteration of natural water systems through irrigation diversions, and the introduction of non-native species. Residual agricultural chemicals, including arsenic-based pesticides historically used on sugar cane, have been documented in Hawaiian soils long after plantation operations ceased. The plantation system was itself built on the dispossession of Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) land and labor, a process accelerated by the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the 1898 annexation of Hawaiʻi by the United States.

Environmental justice research has consistently documented that Indigenous communities and communities of color bear disproportionate burdens from both industrial contamination and disaster impacts. In Hawaiʻi, Kanaka Maoli communities have faced compounding disadvantages in land access, housing security, and healthcare access that predate and are exacerbated by acute disasters like the 2023 fires.