Martha Pskowski | El Paso Times High winds carrying dust across the Borderland is a common occurrence in the Chihuahua Desert. But what some might pass off as a temporary inconvenience could have long-term health consequences, a recent study found.

A journal article published in "atmosphere" found a correlation between dust events and increased hospital admissions in El Paso. The number of patients admitted to hospitals increased from the day of a dust event to up to one week later. Increased hospital admissions after dust events were documented for conditions including coronary artery disease and Valley fever. Estrella Herrera-Molina, who recently completed a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UTEP, is the article's lead author. Thomas Gill and Gabriel Ibarra-Mejia of UTEP and Soyoung Jeon of New Mexico State University are coauthors.

The authors encourage individuals, public agencies and employers, especially of outdoor workers, to heed air pollution and dust warnings to mitigate health risks. Dust events are on the rise in the Southwest, a trend that experts expect to continue as the climate changes. The researchers collected data from 2010 to 2014, finding that El Paso residents were exposed to dust events an average of 54 times a year. Each event lasted about two hours.

The researchers obtained hospitalization data from the Texas Department of State Health Services and used a regression model to determine the association between the dust and wind data and hospital admissions. They found a statistically significant increase in hospitalizations for numerous conditions from the day of the dust event to a week later. READ further from the source