An overview of bioaerosol load and health impacts associated with dust storms: A focus on the Middle East

Soleimani, Zahra; Teymouri, Pari; Boloorani, Ali Darvishi; Mesdaghinia, Alireza; Middleton, Nick; Griffin, Dale W.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.117187

Cited by 86 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 138 publications

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“…Air quality and particulate matter (PM) levels are associated with meteorological factors, particularly wind speed. Poor air quality is caused by pollution, urbanization, and exacerbated through climate change with increasing hot, dry weather events and subsequent dust storms and bush fires [ 64 ]. Consistent exposure to high levels of PM and poor air quality is a risk factor in respiratory diseases by increasing host susceptibility through oxidative stress and inflammation of the airways contributing to virus transmission and poor respiratory outcomes [ 65 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weather Variability and COVID-19 Transmission: A Review of Recent Research

McClymont

2021

IJERPH

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Weather and climate play a significant role in infectious disease transmission, through changes to transmission dynamics, host susceptibility and virus survival in the environment. Exploring the association of weather variables and COVID-19 transmission is vital in understanding the potential for seasonality and future outbreaks and developing early warning systems. Previous research examined the effects of weather on COVID-19, but the findings appeared inconsistent. This review aims to summarize the currently available literature on the association between weather and COVID-19 incidence and provide possible suggestions for developing weather-based early warning system for COVID-19 transmission. Studies eligible for inclusion used ecological methods to evaluate associations between weather (i.e., temperature, humidity, wind speed and rainfall) and COVID-19 transmission. The review showed that temperature was reported as significant in the greatest number of studies, with COVID-19 incidence increasing as temperature decreased and the highest incidence reported in the temperature range of 0–17 °C. Humidity was also significantly associated with COVID-19 incidence, though the reported results were mixed, with studies reporting positive and negative correlation. A significant interaction between humidity and temperature was also reported. Wind speed and rainfall results were not consistent across studies. Weather variables including temperature and humidity can contribute to increased transmission of COVID-19, particularly in winter conditions through increased host susceptibility and viability of the virus. While there is less indication of an association with wind speed and rainfall, these may contribute to behavioral changes that decrease exposure and risk of infection. Understanding the implications of associations with weather variables and seasonal variations for monitoring and control of future outbreaks is essential for early warning systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weather Variability and COVID-19 Transmission: A Review of Recent Research

McClymont

2021

IJERPH

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“…Climate change causes increased cycles of dust storms and dust settlement on surfaces, especially in urban areas, significantly influences the urban life in terms of agriculture 1 , health 2 , renewable energy harvesting 3 , etc. Mitigation of dust from surfaces becomes one of the recent challenges and, particularly, dust removal from energy harvesting device surfaces becomes necessary towards sustaining device performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adhesion characteristics of solution treated environmental dust

Adukwu

Yilbaş

Jalilov

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Environmental dust is modified towards self-cleaning applications under the gravitational influence. Dust particles are collected in the local area of Dammam in Saudi Arabia and they are treated with a dilute hydrofluoric acid solution. The changes in chemical and adhesion characteristics of the dust particles prior and after the solution treatment are analyzed. Force of adhesion and work required to remove dust from hydrophobic and hydrophilic glass surfaces are assessed, separately, for solution treated and collected dust. We show that aqueous hydrofluoric acid solution treatment modifies some dust components while causing the formation of submicron cracks and nano/submicron porous/pillars like textures on the dust particles. The texture generated on dust surfaces after the solution treatment has a great influence on dust adhesion characteristics. Hence, the solution treated dust particles result in lower adhesion on hydrophobic and hydrophilic glass surfaces as compared to that of untreated dust. The gravitational force enables to remove solution treated dust from inclined glass surfaces, which becomes more apparent for hydrophobic surfaces. Climate change causes increased cycles of dust storms and dust settlement on surfaces, especially in urban areas, significantly influences the urban life in terms of agriculture 1 , health 2 , renewable energy harvesting 3 , etc. Mitigation of dust from surfaces becomes one of the recent challenges and, particularly, dust removal from energy harvesting device surfaces becomes necessary towards sustaining device performance. Using the gravitational influence only removing dust from surfaces becomes fruitful. The inclination of the surface can create the gravitational influence while causing dust particles displacement on the surface 4. However, frictional and adhesion forces (such as van der Walls forces) between the particles and the surface generate a retardation effect on the motion of dust particles along the inclined surface. Since the dust particle size varies and large size particles can cause avalanche influence on the remaining small size dust particles while enhancing dust motion on the surface 4. However, some compounds in the dust particles, such as alkaline and alkaline earth metal compounds, do not satisfy the stoichiometric elemental ratio 5 ; hence, this causes ionic forces to be created on the particle surface while contributing to the interfacial force between the dust and inclined surfaces. This also enhances the pinning effect of the dust particles on the inclined surface. However, lowering surface energies of both the dust particles and the inclined surface, via chemical modification, can reduce the interfacial attraction between both surfaces. Therefore, investigation of dust particles removal from inclined surfaces with and without chemical modifications becomes essential for dust cleaning applications under the gravitational influence. Dust composes of several elements and compounds, which depend on the geomorphologic structure of the landscapes 5. S...

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“…In general, larger AOD values begin in spring, reaching a maximum in summer, followed by a decrease in fall and winter. Furthermore, over Iraq, along the Mesopotamia plains, there is a distinct spatial northwestern pattern of aerosol loadings, in accordance with the prevailing shamal wind direction [12,13,[52][53][54]. Figure 6 shows that the seasonal variability in AOD indeed follows the general trend of increasing AOD toward spring-summer and a substantial decrease in fall-winter.…”

Section: Aod Change During Synoptically Calm Vs Stormy Periodsmentioning

confidence: 63%

Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

Chudnovsky

Kostinski

2020

Remote Sensing

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We examine satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) data during the period 2000–2018 over the Middle East to evaluate the contribution of anthropogenic pollution. We focus on Iraq, where US troops were present for nearly nine years. We begin with a plausibility argument linking anthropogenic influence and AOD signature. We then calculate the percent change in AOD every two years. To pinpoint the causes for changes in AOD on a spatial basis, we distinguish between synoptically “calm” periods and those with vigorous synoptic activity. This was done on high-resolution 10 km AOD retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor (Terra satellite). We found spatiotemporal variability in the intensity of the AOD and its standard deviation along the dust-storm corridor during three studied periods: before Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (1 March 2000–19 March 2003), during OIF (20 March 2003–1 September 2010), and Operation New Dawn (OND; 1 September 2010–18 December 2011), and after the US troops’ withdrawal (19 December 2011–31 December 2018). Pixels of military camps and bases, major roads and areas of conflict, and their corresponding AOD values, were selected to study possible effects. We found that winter, with its higher frequency of days with synoptically “calm” conditions compared to spring and summer, was the best season to quantitatively estimate the impact of these ground-based sources. Surprisingly, an anthropogenic impact on the AOD signature was also visible during vigorous synoptic activity. Meteorological conditions that favor detection of these effects using space imagery are discussed, where the effects are more salient than in surrounding regions with similar meteorological conditions. This exceeds expectations when considering synoptic variations alone.

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An overview of bioaerosol load and health impacts associated with dust storms: A focus on the Middle East

Cited by 86 publications

References 138 publications

Weather Variability and COVID-19 Transmission: A Review of Recent Research

Weather Variability and COVID-19 Transmission: A Review of Recent Research

Adhesion characteristics of solution treated environmental dust

Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

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