Residents of Utah, particularly those around the Great Salt Lake, face heightened risks from dust pollution, as revealed by a recent study.
Scientists were already well aware that Salt Lake City’s atypical geography lends itself to sudden, harsh changes in its air quality.
Winter brings periodic temperature inversions that trap cold air beneath warmer air, intensified by the surrounding mountain-valley terrain. This condition effectively entraps pollution from vehicles and other sources over the Salt Lake Valley.
However, researchers have discovered that these dust storms that routinely keep Utahns inside for days are more dangerous than previously thought.
The dust examined in the GeoHealth journal study includes arsenic, a contaminant linked to diabetes and various cancers.
Arsenic occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust and was carried by streams over millennia, depositing in the Great Salt Lake playa, thereby becoming a regular component of airborne dust.
Scientists also found lead, which can severely stunt development of the nervous system and brain, especially in children.
Lead contamination often results from human activities such as mining. It was also historically added to gasoline nationwide, a practice discontinued by 1996 due to its impact on public health.
Utah residents, particularly those in Salt Lake City (pictured), are familiar with dust and smog. However, the new study highlights the presence of toxic materials in the dust that pose significant health risks.
Some of the pollutants come from the Great Salt Lake playa (pictured), which was at a record low in 2021. Others come from human activities like mining and smelting
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Some dust samples contained hazardous levels of thallium, a highly toxic element that can cause hair loss, gastrointestinal issues and premature birth if a mother ingests it.
Annie Putman, a hydrologist with the US Geological Survey and lead author of the GeoHealth study explained that these dangerous particles are ending up in dust storms largely because they’re swept up from the playa.
‘Because we’re in a closed basin,’ Putman told The Salt Lake Tribune, ‘much of what we do … has a chance to end up in the lake’.
Previous research from Putman indicates that these materials could be linked to a copper mine in Kennecott and a smelter in Salt Lake County.
She collected the samples by making dust filters using round cake pans with glass marbles suspended over plastic mesh. She then placed them at 17 sites in Davis, Weber, Box Elder and Cache counties.
‘This is kind of an old but very inexpensive methodology for pretty successfully capturing dust,’ Putman said.
‘It’s great because you don’t need electricity. You don’t need anything special. You just set the traps out, you wait, you come back.’
Pictured: Bison roam a section of the Great Salt Lake that used to be underwater with the city skyline in the background
During the time the dust samples were collected for the study, there were no major dust storms, which could indicate smaller particles are going unnoticed
Antelope Island State Park that is located within the Great Salt Lake in Utah is seen above in a photo from September 12
She gathered these samples in the late summer and fall of 2022, a particularly dry year that saw the lake sink to a record low elevation.
She then sent the samples to the University of Utah to analyze the isotopes contained in the dust.
Bountiful, a Salt Lake City suburb, had more dust pollution from human activities, like nearby gravel quarries. Towns to the north have higher exposure to emissions from the playa.
Some dust samples also contained hazardous levels of thallium, a highly toxic element that can cause hair loss, gastrointestinal issues and premature birth if a mother ingests it.
It’s not clear where the thallium is coming from, but Putman has some theories.
Putman posited in a 2023 report that the thallium may have come from the Ogden Defense Depot Superfund site, or from nearby hot springs.
‘It’s a thread we haven’t been able to pull yet,’ Putman said. ‘There’s potentially something interesting there.’
Children younger than six years old are most at risk, Putman’s most recent research found, because they tend to incidentally ingest higher amounts of dust and dirt relative to the size of their bodies.
This file photo shows the Utah State Capitol, left, in Salt Lake City standing amongst smog
In this file photo, boat docks sit on dry cracked earth at the Great Salt Lake’s Antelope Island Marina on August 01, 2021 near Syracuse, Utah
A scenic view at the Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah. Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles, is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake
‘I have a child who’s nine months old, so I’m thinking about this all the time,’ Putman said. ‘Babies… are constantly picking things up and exploring them with their mouths.’
Putman added that during the time she collected her samples, there were no major dust storms, which could indicate smaller particles are going unnoticed.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality is in the midst of building a monitoring system to track dust across the state.
Putman’s study recommends washing your hands, along with toys and produce. It’s also good to remove your shoes indoors and use vacuums with HEPA filters.
‘It is important to do science that’s relevant to people,’ Putman said, ‘so that’s a major motivator for all of us who worked on this’.
