{"id":142496,"date":"2024-09-26T13:52:07","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T13:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/26\/reactive-dust-from-great-salt-lake-may-have-health-consequences\/"},"modified":"2024-09-26T13:52:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T13:52:07","slug":"reactive-dust-from-great-salt-lake-may-have-health-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/26\/reactive-dust-from-great-salt-lake-may-have-health-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Reactive dust from Great Salt Lake may have health consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div style=\"clear:both\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.subscribe-cta {\n  color: black;\n  margin-top: 0px;\n  background-color: #EDD695;\n  background-size: cover;\n  padding: 20px;\n  border: 1px solid black;\n  border-top: 5px solid black;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n.centered {\n  text-align:center;\n  margin:auto;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:group {\"className\":\"subscribe-cta\"} -->\n<div id=\"subscribeConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group subscribe-cta\"><!-- wp:heading {\"textAlign\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"2em\"}}} -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:2em\">Extreme Climate Survey<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"1.1em\"}}} -->\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\"><strong><em>Science News <\/em>is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:spacer {\"height\":\"20px\"} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:spacer -->\n\n<!-- wp:buttons {\"className\":\"centered\",\"layout\":{\"type\":\"flex\",\"justifyContent\":\"center\"}} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:buttons --><\/div>\n<!-- \/wp:group -->\n\n\n<p>The Great Salt Lake has been steadily shrinking as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/great-salt-lake-shrinking-utah-drought\">drought, climate change and consumption remove water<\/a> faster than it can be replenished, leaving over 1,900 square kilometers of the lake bed exposed (<em>SN: 4\/17\/23<\/em>). As the lake dries out, it leaves behind dust laden with metals, minerals and sediment that had been carried into the lake from upstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To better understand the dust\u2019s composition, chemical engineer Kerry Kelly and colleagues aerosolized samples collected from around the lake. Then they filtered out any dust particles wider than 10 micrometers, leaving only the dust particles small enough to inhale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysis of the inhalable particles revealed several metals \u2014 including manganese, copper, iron and lead \u2014 at higher concentrations than dust from other nearby playas. Lithium and arsenic were also present at levels exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s regional screening levels, a reference point for further risk evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team also found that the oxidative potential of the Great Salt Lake dust, which indicates how likely the dust is to generate reactive oxygen species, is generally higher than that of dust from other nearby lakes. Reactive oxygen species are unstable molecules containing oxygen that interact with \u2014 and sometimes damage \u2014 molecules in living cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur body has all kinds of antioxidants,\u201d says Kelly, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. These compounds allow us to breathe in and handle reactive oxygen species \u2014 to a point. \u201cHowever, if we get too much of these reactive particles or reactive species that enter our lungs, it can cause an imbalance. Then that can lead to inflammation, and then inflammation leads to a number of adverse health effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But experts advise against jumping to conclusions. \u201cI think it\u2019s fine to look at environmental components, and to look at their potential for having this or that effect,\u201d says David Lo, a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside. \u201cBut then you want to ask on the same side, is there any evidence that people are actually being harmed?\u201d Correlating exposure to highly oxidative dust with specific public health outcomes would require more data on the extent of exposure and studies linking oxidative potential to specific health concerns, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kelly agrees. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say, \u2018The sky is falling, we\u2019re all going to die.\u2019\u201d Rather, she says, the study \u201cshows that the dust from the Great Salt Lake is potentially a significant health concern, so we need to do more work.\u201d Utah has funding for equipment to measure the extent to which dust from Great Salt Lake blows into nearby cities, she says, but it hasn\u2019t been deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe also need to get more water back in the Great Salt Lake,\u201d Kelly says, \u201cbecause that is really the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/salt-lake-dust-health-consequences\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? The Great Salt Lake has been steadily shrinking as drought, climate change and consumption remove water faster than it can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/091724_sw_salt-lake-dust_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[14476,20433,1168,649,6106,113398,6524],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142498,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142496\/revisions\/142498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}