AccuWeather.com

Irene's Toxic Aftermath

Aug 31, 2011; 12:02 PM ET

Photograph Courtesy NASA

Hurricane Irene-the storm that flooded states along the East Coast, dumping 20 inches of rain on communities in Virginia and North Carolina and devastating Vermont-has left more than property damage in its wake. The storm has given rise to increased health problems that are likely to worsen, particularly for residents of water-damaged homes. Asthma and allergy sufferers are already feeling the impacts of the airborne mold spores set aloft by strong winds and carried into homes via open windows, window fans or air conditioning units. Those spores act as serious triggers, particularly when combined with high pollen and ragweed counts. In an article by Dr. Clifford W. Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York, he recommends keeping windows closed, air conditioner and furnace filters clean and setting the air conditioner on "do not recirculate" mode to limit mold spore exposure.

But beyond the allergy and asthma impacts are the toxins released by surging floodwaters. As they wash down streets, picking up debris, floodwaters become polluted with a host of chemicals from "cars, machinery, gas stations, dry cleaners, toxic waste dumps and oil distributors" according to one report on Huffington Post.

And floodwaters can bring toxic metals to the surface, and deposit them in places like school playgrounds, according to research done following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A study conducted by the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University found that schoolyards contained potentially health-damaging levels of toxic metals like lead, arsenic, iron and thallium following those hurricanes.

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