O=C=OTracking the toxic metals left behind by #wildfires
Researcher Derek Peak and colleagues used the powerful X-ray beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) to study how #chromium can change into a #toxic form, and how it interacts with iron in soils during #fires. The interaction with #iron is important because the two elements "tend to travel in the same circles" in nature, says Peak, a soil chemist in USask's Soil Science department.
"This project was looking at fundamental mechanisms under controlled conditions so that we can start to predict or model the process better," he said. The CLS's SXRMB beamline was vital to this work, Peak says, because it is difficult to study the oxidation states of iron and chromium without ultrabright synchrotron light.
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-tracking-toxic-metals-left-wildfires.html
Tracking the toxic metals left behind by wildfires
Between 2023 and 2025, more than 30 million hectares burned in Canada due to wildfires. The threat from increasingly frequent and intense wildfires goes beyond fire and smoke—the heat can also transform naturally occurring metals in soil into more toxic forms that could pose a threat to human health.
David Sacerdote
atomicker
Peter du Toit
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻💻🧬
