by Tom Gill, a professor in the engineering and environmental sciences program at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the key ingredients for dust are typically drought, ground disturbance and wind.
Unirrigated agricultural fields are a common source of dust storms.
Ford said he did not believe climate change was necessarily a factor in Monday’s accident, as it had largely led to wetter planting seasons and flooding in Illinois. But he said land management problems were a particular problem in Illinois and could have contributed to the problem. He noted that climate change was certainly a factor for dust storms in the West, where they predominantly occur.
Shrinking or emptying lakes in western states have been significant contributors to dust pollution.
Last fall, water levels in the Great Salt Lake fell to their lowest level on record, exposing much of the lake bed and creating conditions for dust storms, laden with toxic metals, that now threaten the 2 million people who They live nearby.
In California, taxpayers at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have spent at least $2.5 billion to control dust emissions at Lake Owens, which was drained by the utility and was once the largest source of man-made dust in the US
Dust can have health consequences. Exposure to dust particles can cause respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems and fungal infections. Dust can carry heavy metals and other toxins into people’s homes and lungs. Dust-related deaths caused by disease or infection were not included in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society study.
“If you breathe in particles of things in the air and they get into your respiratory tract, into your lungs, it’s going to cause irritation, whether it’s toxic or not,” Gill said. “It adds to the burden of air pollution.”
