Desert Dust Outbreaks in Southern Europe: Contribution to Daily PM ₁₀ Concentrations and Short-Term Associations with Mortality and Hospital Admissions

Abstract

Background:Evidence on the association between short-term exposure to desert dust and health outcomes is controversial.Objectives:We aimed to estimate the short-term effects of particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM10) on mortality and hospital admissions in 13 Southern European cities, distinguishing between PM10 originating from the desert and from other sources.Methods:We identified desert dust advection days in multiple Mediterranean areas for 2001–2010 by combining modeling tools, back-trajectories, and satellite data. For each advection day, we estimated PM10 concentrations originating from desert, and computed PM10 from other sources by difference. We fitted city-specific Poisson regression models to estimate the association between PM from different sources (desert and non-desert) and daily mortality and emergency hospitalizations. Finally, we pooled city-specific results in a random-effects meta-analysis.Results:On average, 15% of days were affected by desert dust at ground level (desert PM10 > 0 μg/m3). Most episodes occurred in spring–summer, with increasing gradient of both frequency and intensity north–south and west–east of the Mediterranean basin. We found significant associations of both PM10 concentrations with mortality. Increases of 10 μg/m3 in non-desert and desert PM10 (lag 0–1 days) were associated with increases in natural mortality of 0.55% (95% CI: 0.24, 0.87%) and 0.65% (95% CI: 0.24, 1.06%), respectively. Similar associations were estimated for cardio-respiratory mortality and hospital admissions.Conclusions:PM10 originating from the desert was positively associated with mortality and hospitalizations in Southern Europe. Policy measures should aim at reducing population exposure to anthropogenic airborne particles even in areas with large contribution from desert dust advections.Citation:Stafoggia M, Zauli-Sajani S, Pey J, Samoli E, Alessandrini E, Basagaña X, Cernigliaro A, Chiusolo M, Demaria M, Díaz J, Faustini A, Katsouyanni K, Kelessis AG, Linares C, Marchesi S, Medina S, Pandolfi P, Pérez N, Querol X, Randi G, Ranzi A, Tobias A, Forastiere F, MED-PARTICLES Study Group. 2016. Desert dust outbreaks in Southern Europe: contribution to daily PM10 concentrations and short-term associations with mortality and hospital admissions. Environ Health Perspect 124:413–419; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409164

Health Impact Assessment Associated with Exposure to PM10 and Dust Storms in Kuwait

“…An estimated effect of 3% decline in daily forced expiratory volume (FEV1) change was observed for every 10 µg/m 3 increase in ambient PM 10 level [48]. Other studies showed a strong association between dust events and asthma admissions in Japan [23], Trinidad [22], Taiwan [49], South Korea [50,51] and southern Europe [52].…”

The Spatial Variation of Dust Particulate Matter Concentrations during Two Icelandic Dust Storms in 2015

“…The DustTrak instrument provides measurements of mass concentration from 0.001 to 150 mg¨m´3 with the mass fraction concentrations corresponding to PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 4 , PM 10 , and the total PM 15 . Five minute measurements were made at each stop in the dust plume, consisting of 60 five-second sampling periods.…”

“…Table 1 shows the mean PM [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] concentrations at different locations (Figure 1) inside the dust plume. Although the PM 10 concentrations are moderate (<600 µg¨m´3) for an ongoing dust storm in Iceland, the mean levels of PM 1 are considerably high, such as >97 µg¨m´3 for Storm 1.…”

“…Desert dust has a remarkable influence on Earth's ecosystems as well as human health. Several studies have shown that suspended desert dust can increase mortality hundreds of kilometers downwind from dust sources [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Mortality was found to increase by 2%-12% with every 10 µg¨m´3 increase in particulate matter (PM 10 ) concentration.…”

WRF-Chem model simulations of a dust outbreak over the central Mediterranean and comparison with multi-sensor desert dust observations

“…Modeling the transport of desert dust is receiving increasing attention from the scientific community, allowing for better ascertaining its impact on radiation budget (Hsu et al, 1999), clouds (Bangert et al, 2011), air quality (Goudie andMiddleton, 2001;Pey et al, 2013;Barnaba et al, 2017) and human health (e.g., Mallone et al, 2011;Stafoggia et al, 2016). Despite many improvements in characterizing dust source regions thanks to satellite products Schepanski et al, 2012), modeling dust emission and transport is still challenging due to the high uncertainties associated with the diffuse character of the emissions, re-suspension processes, the inherent complexity of aerosol chemistry, and meteorological conditions, which strongly influence dust outbreaks and their spatiotemporal fields (e.g., Knippertz and Todd, 2012).…”