You have full access to this open access article. Although it is a growing area of investigation in the Global Dust Belt, only a few population-level studies have evaluated the human health associations of windblown dust in North America. We investigated whether acute, short-term dust exposures DE , in Lubbock, Texas a medium-sized, dust-prone city in the southern Great Plains, USA were associated with significant increases in hospitalizations on the day of the exposure and up to 7 days afterward.
We used the distributed lag non-linear models in time series analysis to describe non-linear relationship between response outcomes and the delayed effects of exposure over time. We found that increased relative risks of hospitalizations for multiple conditions were associated with the two DE approaches that occurred between and Associations were modified by age, gender, day of the week, and holiday effects.
As climate change increases water stresses on dryland agriculture and long periods of drought, dust exposures are likely to increase for residents of dryland cities and with it the likelihood of adverse health effects on people with preexisting conditions.
Additional investigations are needed for other dust-prone population centers worldwide to document the health effects of dust exposures and investigate their causes. The health effects related to windblown dust exposure and their potential causal mechanisms have been documented in numerous studies and reviews e.
However, the majority of these studies e. Fewer population-based studies of the health effects of windblown dust have been performed in North America Tong et al.
