If it’s not enough to flee your home from an advancing lava flow with it’s deadly sulfur dioxide gas and sulfuric acid droplets, coexistent with explosions and ash plumes, residents near Kilauea have yet another ominous danger now to contend with. It’s known as “laze”- lava morphing into a haze--the result when boiling lava mixes with the cool ocean, producing hydrochloric acid and steam, shooting particles of volcanic glass into the air. This new threat just emerged after a steam of lava crossed Highway 137 Saturday night and merged with the Pacific Ocean, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). So how much of a threat is laze to resident who are living in and around Kilauea, and in the immediate area? While the risk to residents is difficult to quantify on a large scale, those with pre-existing lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema (COPD), or other restrictive lung diseases could be substantial.

Source: Forbes May 20, 2018 19:52 UTC