Desert dust and sandstorms are recurring environmental phenomena that are reported to produce serious health risks worldwide. This scoping review was conducted to identify the most likely health effects of desert dust and sandstorms and the methods used to characterize desert dust exposure from the existing epidemiological literature.

We systematically searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus to identify studies that reported the effects of desert dust and sandstorms on human health. Search terms referred to desert dust or sandstorm exposure, names of major deserts, and health outcomes. Health effects were cross-tabulated with study design variables (e.g., epidemiological design and methods to quantify dust exposure), desert dust source, health outcomes and conditions. We identified 204 studies that met the inclusion criteria for the scoping review. More than half of the studies (52.9%) used a time-series study design. However, we found a substantial variation in the methods used to identify and quantify desert dust exposure.

The binary metric of dust exposure was more frequently used than the continuous metric for all desert dust source locations. Most studies (84.8%) reported significant associations between desert dust and adverse health effects, mainly for respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity causes. Although there is a large body of evidence on the health effects of desert dust and sandstorms, the existing epidemiological studies have significant limitations related to exposure measurement and statistical analysis that potentially contribute to inconsistencies in determining the effect of desert dust on human health.

Key Points
Desert dust and sandstorms are recurring environmental phenomena that are reported to produce serious health risks worldwide

Inconsistencies in exposure definitions and modeling strategies may have contributed to the observed heterogeneity in the effect estimates

Developing a standardized research protocol could be a vital step toward better assessing the association between desert dust and health...read further from the link above

Listof authors: Kaung Suu Lwin, Aurelio Tobias, Paul Lester Chua, Lei Yuan, Ramita Thawonmas, Sophearen Ith, Zin Wai Htay, Lin Szu Yu, Lisa Yamasaki, Marta Roqué, Xavier Querol, Julia C. Fussell, Kari Christine Nadeau, Massimo Stafoggia, Najat A. Saliba, Chris Fook Sheng Ng, Masahiro Hashizume