Dust from the Sahara to the American Continent: Health impacts

Abstract

The Saharan Air Layer is a mass of hot, dry air laden with dust that forms over the Sahara and moves towards the Atlantic Ocean. This air mass contains soil dust particles emitted by the action of winds on the African continent. Between June and August, the large-scale patterns of wind circulation transport dust from the Sahara across the tropical North Atlantic Ocean,affecting parts of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, even some regions of the United States, and the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. Between December and April, wind circulation patterns facilitate dust transportation from the Sahara to the northern parts of South America and the Amazon. This dust transportation a phenomenon of interest to geosciencesand public health because of the potential health impacts of dust dispersion and circulation in the atmosphere. Thus, we assessed the relationship between exposure to Saharan dust (SahD) and its implications for human health in the Americas. We performed a nonsystematic review in the PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Scielo databases of studies published between 2000 and 2020 in Portuguese, English, French, or Spanish using the search words “Saharan dust,” or “mineral dust,” or “desert dust,” and “human health.” The available direct air pollutants measurements indicate that the pollution level in the cities affected on a constant and prolonged basis is high versus acceptable standards. Further, this review also showed that the negative health effects of SahD are sparsely studied in the Americas.

Quantifying Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of African Dust Detection Threshold for PM10 Concentrations in the Caribbean Area Using Multiscale Decomposition

“…In Grenada, Akpinar-Elci et al (2015) has shown that mineral dust coupled with seasonal humidity allows the formation of inhalable particles that aggravate asthma among residents. Thus, the Caribbean are known to have some of the highest incidences of asthma on the planet due to dust outbreaks (Urrutia-Pereira et al, 2021). A recent study made by Viel et al (2020) in Guadeloupe also indicated that Saharan dust seems to influence weight but not length or head circumference at birth.…”

“…Despite all these positive aspects, mineral dust also has harmful effects on health. In the literature, many studies associated it with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, prematurity, general mortality, and a series of infectious diseases (Comrie, 2005;Griffin, 2007;Chen et al, 2010;Baughman et al, 2011;Tobías et al, 2011;Schweitzer et al, 2018;Dominguez-Rodriguez et al, 2020;Urrutia-Pereira et al, 2021), to cite a few. The populations most susceptible to shortterm effects of airborne dust are: 1) the elderly, due to their lower immune capacity (Jiménez et al, 2010); 2) individuals affected by chronic cardiopulmonary diseases (Dominguez-Rodriguez et al, 2020); and (iii)children, whose lungs and airways are not fully developed (Yu et al, 2012).…”

“…Mineral dust is a mixture of fine and coarse particles (Does et al, 2016). In this study, the authors focused on particles lower or equal to 10 μm in diameter called PM 10 which are present in significant quantities in dust plumes (Petit et al, 2005) and can reach the trachea and the bronchi after inhalation (Urrutia-Pereira et al, 2021).…”

The Effects of Trash, Residential Biofuel, and Open Biomass Burning Emissions on Local and Transported PM2.5 and Its Attributed Mortality in Africa

“…We selected these three combustion sources because they are more diffuse and inefficient than sources that have been studied in North America and Europe (e.g., traffic, industry, power generation). While there are other large sources of PM 2.5 on the African continent, such as natural dust (Kotsyfakis et al., 2019 ; Urrutia‐Pereira et al., 2021 ), here, we focus on three diffuse combustion sources because they are less controlled across Africa in comparison to other regions of the world, are understudied and unique from fossil‐fuel sources that have been studied more historically, and they may have increased emissions in the future with population growth and climate change.…”

High Enrichment of Heavy Metals in Fine Particulate Matter through Dust Aerosol Generation

“…Interactions between dust aerosols and water vapor play a critical role in cloud condensation and ice nucleation processes (Kaufman et al, 2002;Tang et al, 2016). Dust particles can be transported on large scales (Shao and Dong, 2006), and could act as a medium to transport toxic compounds, including heavy metals, which significantly harm human health, particularly the human respiratory system and even cause premature death (Urrutia-Pereira et al, 2021).…”