Chemical-laden dust from southern California’s drying Salton Sea is likely harming the lungs of people around the shrinking body of water, and the effects are especially pronounced in children, new peer-reviewed research from the University of California, Irvine, shows.
A separate peer-reviewed study from the University of California, Riverside, also found the Salton Sea’s contaminated dust seemed to alter lung microbiome, which could trigger pulmonary issues that have been reported around the lake.
The two new papers are part of a series of studies that are revealing the environmental and public health risks of dust from the drying Salton Sea, which sits about 60 miles (95km) south-east of metropolitan Los Angeles. The dust has been found to travel more than 100 miles (160km), though the prevailing winds blow to the south-east.
“The drying of the Salton Sea is not only an environmental crisis but also a public health crisis,” UC Irvine study co-author Jill Johnston said in a statement. “Our study provides concrete evidence that children in surrounding communities are facing measurable harm to their lungs as a result of increased dust exposure.”
Similar issues have been reported around the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and other drying saline lakes.
The new research around the Salton Sea is revealing a unique public health risk stemming from poorly regulated pesticide use on surrounding cropland, the climate crisis and poor water-resource management, advocates say.
The over 340-sq-mile lake is receding as its primary source, the Colorado River, dries amid an ongoing drought and over-reliance for drinking or agricultural water. Large patches of the dried Salton Sea bed are now exposed, and those are contaminated from pesticide chemicals and nutrients in fertilizers. The bed also teems with naturally occurring, dangerous heavy metals, such as arsenic.
The health risk is greatest for the largely low-income and Latino residents who live near the lake. The UC Irvine study checked lung capacity of 500 children around 10 years old who live in the region.
Researchers evaluated lung size and strength by gauging how much air a person can exhale, as well as how fast they can release it. The study used state air quality data to estimate the exposures to particulate matter from the lake.
The tests showed a “clear association” between poorer lung function and the distance from which people lived from the lake. The authors wrote that those living closer to the lake showed wheezing and other respiratory conditions. They likened the effects to “dust bowl pneumonia” in the 1930s, when widespread dust exposure led to severe and often fatal respiratory illness.
The UC Riverside study looked at the Salton Sea dust’s impact on the lungs of mice, and, using new technology, was able to measure changes to lung microbiome. The exposure seemed to ignite a non-allergic asthma, which cannot be managed with traditional inhalers. The symptoms are similar to those reported by people living around the lake, Emma Aronson, a UC Riverside study co-author, said.
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The research marks the first time that contaminants have been found to alter lung microbiome – or bacteria that live in the lungs – that are little understood by health researchers. The findings could shed light on how air pollution more broadly damages the pulmonary system, Aronson said.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the ramifications because there could be many kinds of environmental exposures around the world that are changing or potentially rewriting our lung microbiome, but we don’t yet understand the impact, so all we can say right now is that it is alarming,” Aronson said.
Researchers suspect they have identified the source of the issue. Salton Sea dust contains high levels of a piece of bacteria membrane that is a high-potency endotoxin. The nutrients in the sea are likely causing a proliferation of the bacteria that are leaving behind the membranes, Aronson said.
A taskforce advising policymakers on Salton Sea issues is advocating for the installation of wetlands that remove nutrients from water, which could meaningfully reduce the problem, Aronson added. Experts also advise people in the lake’s vicinity to wear a mask as much as possible, and for those living nearby to use air filtration systems.
