What is the substance being sprayed on the California wildfires?

The primary purpose of the pink dye is simply to allow firefighters and pilots to accurately create and identify lines of flame retardant.

“Essentially, this allows the pilot to see where the line will be dropped,” Horn said. “If it’s clear, they won’t know where the deceleration line is.”

Phos-Chek fades over time when exposed to sunlight and washes away with water, so it won’t permanently stain your landscape.

Neptune Aviation, a Montana-based air tanker company, is one of the services currently delivering fire retardant to areas affected by the fires. The company has contracts with the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

Nick Lin, vice president of operations for Neptune Aviation, said three of the company’s air tankers are in use in Southern California. He explained that the aircraft were using designated air tanker bases set up by the government.

“We go to a pre-established tanker base where we mix the flame retardant and pump it onto the plane. Think of us like a dump truck. We take the product from A to B,” he said.

Neptune Aviation flew at least 93 missions and transported an additional 280,000 gallons of retardant for firefighting efforts, Lin added.

To protect the ecosystem, the Forest Service and Department of the Interior require aircraft to avoid dropping flame retardants within 300 feet of waterways (ground deliveries must also avoid waterways). However, some exceptions are allowed, such as when “the potential damage to natural resources outweighs the potential loss of aquatic life.” According to the Forest Service.

The main environmental issue associated with flame retardants is the presence of heavy metals. A study last year suggested that some versions of Phos-Chek contained higher levels of metals such as cadmium and chromium than would be considered safe according to regulatory standards. Heavy metals are not added directly to the product, but can come from naturally occurring impurities.

But Horne said the version of Foscheck dropped in California is “a different product than it was a few years ago.”

Yifan Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the benefits of using flame retardants outweigh the risks.

“There is little evidence that there are any serious long-term health effects in people associated with it,” Zhu said.

He added that the immediate health risks posed by wildfire smoke, which contains high levels of particulate matter, outweigh potential concerns related to flame retardants.

Exposure to smoke pollution can cause a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including difficulty breathing, bronchitis, and heart attacks. According to the Environmental Protection Agency.