Nearly 36% of patients treated at mobile clinics near the Lineage warehouse fire site in Boyle Heights met clinical criteria for fire-related toxic exposure, according to a St. John's Community Health report released Tuesday, Aug. 18.

St. John's CEO Jim Mangia said the findings challenge assurances from South Coast AQMD and Lineage Logistics that ammonia levels near the 1400 S. Los Palos St. warehouse never exceeded state health thresholds.

St. John's deployed three mobile clinics to Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles immediately after the June 17 fire and treated 1,306 patients through July 31. Of those, 469 met clinical surveillance criteria for fire-related toxic exposure, including acute upper respiratory infections, eye disorders, persistent cough, asthma exacerbation and respiratory conditions due to chemical inhalation.

Before the fire, St. John's recorded zero cases of toxic smoke exposure in the same patient population. After: 348.

"That's a direct contradiction with what we're seeing on the ground by serving and providing health care," Mangia said at a press conference Tuesday, Aug. 18 at InnerCity Struggle in Boyle Heights. "To claim that it's not at toxic levels, it's not at emergency levels, that's all doublespeak."

The patient population was overwhelmingly Latino (91.7%), female (64.4%) and age 50 or older (63.5%).

Clinicians dispensed 112 rescue inhalers, 300 headache and pain treatments, 213 oral antihistamines, 115 eye irritation treatments and 25 anxiety or sleep medications during the response period. Twenty-five patients needed prescriptions for acute stress tied to environmental exposure, sleep disruption, housing instability and displacement concerns.

Maria Mendez, a 68-year-old Boyle Heights resident, told the press conference she has experienced nausea, respiratory and eye problems, and anxiety attacks in the two months since the blaze. "Our community, my friends, my neighbors have suffered in the past two months," Mendez said.

Mangia warned the acute cases are only the beginning. He said the community should expect rising rates of asthma, cardiac problems and mental health conditions in the months ahead.

The health data adds pressure to an already contentious cleanup. South Coast AQMD received more than 4,200 odor complaints between July 12 and Aug. 5 and issued 25 consecutive notices of violation to Lineage. The nearly 500,000-square-foot warehouse held 85 to 88 million pounds of food products when the fire broke out; rotting meat has since attracted rats and flies to the neighborhood.

Lineage has pledged $80 million to $100 million for cleanup and reported 93% of bulk food waste removed as of Aug. 13. Mayor Karen Bass, who initially called the air "not dangerous" before apologizing, said at an Aug. 14 community forum at Lou Costello Recreation Center she is directing city attorneys to pursue civil litigation and cost recovery against the company.

UC Irvine associate professor Jill Johnston told LAist in an Aug. 12 report that ammonia detected near the site "may just be a marker of a whole mixture of pollutants coming from the site" that have not been fully characterized.

Neither South Coast AQMD nor Lineage has publicly responded to the St. John's report findings.

The LA Regional Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to take up the Lineage fire at a future meeting to review sampling along the LA River and provide a cleanup update.