Desert dust pollution is increasing in Europe, and the concentration is higher in the south, according to a study released today, which analyzes data collected over the last decade at more than 100 monitoring stations.
The analysis, carried out by researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, indicates that “the amount of dust increased by about half a microgram per cubic metre (μg/m³)” during that period.
“This corresponds to an increase of ten to twenty-five percent of this desert dust pollution,” says the project leader, Kaspar Dällenbach, from the PSI’s Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, cited in a statement from the research center.
“It is not negligible, both in terms of efficiency and cost-benefit of large solar installations and with regard to health impacts from the increase in particulate pollution.”
As for the average desert dust concentration, in southern Europe it is 5.3 micrograms per cubic metre of air, more than double what is found in central and northern Europe (2.1 μg/m³).
To determine with greater precision the level of this pollution in different regions of the continent, the PSI researchers, in addition to Kaspar Dällenbach, Petros Vasilakos, the study’s principal author, and Imad El Haddad, also turned to artificial intelligence.
And, to make long-term comparisons, they “used data from ice cores from Colle Gnifetti, on the Swiss-Italian border.”
“The dust particles trapped in the ice of the Alpine glacier over the last centuries reveal that there the desert dust concentration more than doubled during industrialization — that is, in the last 150 years,” the statement says.
The scientists fear that desert dust concentrations will continue to rise due to the Sahara’s desiccation, partially undermining efforts to curb human-caused atmospheric particulate pollution (transport, industry, etc.), which has been decreasing in Europe thanks to stringent regulations.
Moreover, “changes in atmospheric circulation patterns are bringing ever-stronger winds” from that region to the European continent.
According to Dällenbach, it is believed that “the increase in desert dust is, at least, facilitated by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the associated global warming,” which leads to “drier conditions in certain regions and to the expansion of deserts.”
Regarding health consequences of the high concentrations, the long-term effects (lung diseases, asthma and bronchitis) “could only be definitively proven with extensive long-term studies,” but “the immediate increase in mortality on days with high desert dust levels in the air is well documented: a considerably higher number of people die from heart attacks and respiratory problems” on those days.
Petros Vasilakos says that “the number of storms carrying dust from the Sahara Desert and the Arabian Desert has not increased,” but these have become “more intense over the ten years studied and, as a result, transport more dust to Europe than before.”
And, unlike harmful particles due to exhaust gases and chimney smoke, these “cannot be reduced by direct intervention.”
It is suggested to create alert systems for high desert dust concentrations, similar to those used for urban particles, such as the ozone pollutant.
This would allow the most vulnerable to take precautions and would make energy suppliers more aware of the accumulation of dust on solar panels, which reduces electricity production, so as to compensate for it and maintain grid stability.
