Desert dust storms carry human-made toxic pollutants, and the health risk extends indoors

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Humans have contended with dust storms for thousands of years, ever since early civilizations appeared in the Middle East and North Africa. But modern desert dust storms are different from their preindustrial counterparts.

, as well as pesticides, herbicides, radioactive particulates and aerosolized sewage. The extent to which desert dust storms transport a special class of pollution particles, those even smaller than one micron—or one millionth of a meter—is not yet clear.

This is the class of submicron pollutants, abbreviated as PM1.0, which includes degraded microplastics, metallic nanoparticles, diesel exhaust and fine particles from degraded tires. Of all particulate matter classes, submicron particles are thebecause when once inhaled, they enter the bloodstream, affecting every organ in the body, and even crossing the blood-brain barrier.

This satellite video shows a large dust storm heading southward over the Arabian Peninsula on March 25, 2011. The persistent dark magenta hue of the leading dust front indicates its exceptionally high dust density.We offer several practices here that we believe would help public health agencies successfully tackle the problem of polluted dust storms.Existing technology now makes it possible to identify the types of particles being carried in any particular storm.

 

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