Dust from the Sahara to the American Continent: health impacts
Fecha
2021Autor
Urrutia-Pereira, Marilyn
Varanda Rizzo, Luciana
Latour Staffeld, Patrícia
Chong-Neto, Herberto Jose
Viegie, Giovanni
Solég, Dirceu
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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 geosciences
and 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
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