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When flames swept through western Maui, engulfing the town of Lahaina, residents saw toxic fumes spewing into the air as burning homes, pipes and cars combusted, transforming rubber, metal and plastic into poisonous, particulate matter-filled smoke. ... “It is not safe. It is a hazardous area and that’s why experts are here,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a news conference Saturday. “We’re not doing anybody any favors by letting them back in there quickly, just so they can get sick.” Hawaii’s state toxicologist Diana Felton told Hawaii Public Radio that it could take weeks or months to clean up the pollutants.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Josh Green called the wildfires "likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii's state history." But the impacts go beyond evacuations and damaged buildings. Experts say the fires are also affecting residents' and tourists' physical health and could have impacts on their mental health. (Kekatos, 8/12)

After the scale of destruction caused by the wildfires in Maui came into focus Wednesday, the team from Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, a Hawaii-based reproductive health nonprofit, jumped into action. They set up a 24-hour hotline to assist pregnant and postpartum people displaced by the fires, and are sending breast pumps, infant formula, diapers and many other supplies to the island from Oahu, where they are based. On Thursday, six members of their team including nurses, a midwife and a mental health provider traveled to Maui to staff a mobile health clinic in a converted van. (Kutz, 8/11)

Even when it seems obvious that extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don’t always reflect the role it played. Experts say a mishmash of ways more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don’t really know how many people die in the U.S. each year because of high temperatures in an ever warming world. That imprecision harms efforts to better protect people from extreme heat because officials who set policies and fund programs can’t get the financial and other support needed to make a difference. (Snow and Lafleur, 8/13)