

Industrial sector of this region has the highest concentration of particulates







This study was published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

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Deserts the main culprit
By bpurkapi on 9/28/2010 2:28:36 PM , Rating: 2
A quick glance at the map, shows that areas of desert have bad air quality. Look at Africa as the prime example that stretch of red is due to the Sahara. China's air quality is horrible, because it has the Gobi desert nearby, and a ton of coal power plants. Every year there are giant dust storms that ravage Beijing. Desert + Industry = Black Lungs.

RE: Deserts the main culprit
By Sazabi19 on 9/28/2010 2:39:25 PM , Rating: 1
No, asbestus = black lungs :P"

RE: Deserts the main culprit


RE: Deserts the main culprit
I was thinking the same things as you an the OP.





RE: Deserts the main culprit
By Rugar on 9/28/2010 6:05:21 PM , Rating: 2
It's a semi-accurate statement, but you are looking at it somewhat backwards. The prevailing winds in the northern hemisphere travel east to west. Large dust storms in both the Sahara and the Gobi produce large increases in particulate counts, but these are blown to the west and north rather than to the east and south.

If you look at the map, the eastern parts of equatorial Africa show lower concentrations of particulate matter than the west. Once you cross the Sahara however, you'll notice a rapid increase in particulate matter consonant with the prevailing winds carrying dust to these regions. Eastern China on the other hand has no major dust source to its east and the authors are most likely correct that the source of the observed particulate matter there is anthropogenic.

As to the comment about why dust from the Mojave wouldn't effect the western parts of the US in the same way... two answers. 1) Size. The Mojave is about 1/2 the size of the Gobi and 1/15 the size of the Sahara. There just isn't as much area to make the same impact. 2) Wind. Off the west coast of the US, the cooler ocean waters provide an onshore airflow meaning that, locally, the primary wind flow pattern is from west to east. As this cool, moisture laden ocean air hits the Sierra Nevada range, it dumps it's moisture as rain and snow. Any particulates which are coming from the Mojave will be entrained in this precipitation and "scrubbed" clean.

