At the #Salton Sea, Uncovering the Culprit of #LungDisease

Researchers may have found a cause for #asthma-like symptoms in the region. The discovery could have #global implications.

"The scientists are eager to see if the mice demonstrate a similar disease profile with Great Salt Lake dust. If they do, according to Yisrael, it could potentially have global implications. She points to areas like the #AralSea, on the border of #Kazakhstan and #Uzbekistan, as well as lake systems closer to home, like #MonoLake, in central California. 'All of these areas globally are drying up, and around these areas are communities which complain of severe asthma-like symptoms'"

By Fletcher Reveley
08.19.2024

"When David Lo first visited the Salton Sea shore in the spring of 2018, he was struck by the sheer oddness of the place: the beach of barnacle shells and pulverized fish bones; the abandoned dock far from the water’s edge; the unremitting smell of decay. It was like a scene from a science fiction movie, recalled the 66-year-old biomedical researcher from University of California, Riverside, familiar yet “just off of normal.”

But it was also pleasant, in a way. The sun glistened off the placid surface of the water, the Chocolate Mountains rose in the distance. At first, he said, 'all those odd parts don’t hit you in terms of potential, like ‘Oh my gosh this is a toxic, nasty sort of thing.' But for him that’s changed, he added, 'having learned more about what’s going on.'

"The Salton Sea is a 316-square mile, shallow glaze of water in #SouthernCalifornia that has been receding in recent years. Scientists believe the #ToxicDust kicked up from the exposed lakebed is contributing to respiratory disease in the region.

"Now, after nearly a decade of research, Lo recommends that anyone visiting the lake wear an #N95 mask. Something in the environment — in the water, the land, the air, or all three — appears to be making people in the region sick with a respiratory disease that presents like asthma. Children have been especially impacted; in some areas more than a quarter of kids have been diagnosed with asthma, more than four times the national childhood #asthma rate. Even more children, whether they have been diagnosed or not, display asthma-like symptoms — more than a third of kids in certain areas. And although residents of the area have long believed the Salton Sea to be toxic, Lo and other researchers at UC Riverside are only now beginning to zero in on a culprit. And it’s one that nobody expected."

[...]

"For Lo and the other researchers, however, the results were remarkable for a different reason — the geographic distribution of the asthma symptoms seemed to map closely onto the geographic distribution of the #LPS. The southern end of the lake was also the main entry point for #AgriculturalRunoff, which is laced with nutrients and feeds explosive biological activity. 'All these things are coming together,' said Lo. “The nutrients driving the bacterial growth, driving the toxin getting into the dust, driving the symptoms.' Lo recalled that at one meeting this year of the Salton Sea Task Force, a multidisciplinary group of UC Riverside scientists that studies the Salton Sea, the findings of the various threads of research began to converge: 'That was the meeting where everybody was, you know their jaws were dropping, like ‘Oh my gosh, it’s all fitting into place.’'"

[...]

"Near the end of May this year, Lo hosted a forum at UC Riverside on the health effects of dust and other particles that can be suspended in air. Many of the presenters were graduate students or faculty from various labs at UC Riverside that study the Salton Sea, but one of the keynote speakers, Molly Blakowski, had flown in from a different state entirely. Blakowski studies the Great Salt Lake, in Utah, and her invitation to the event reflected a growing concern among the UC Riverside investigators: What if this toxic LPS is not unique to the Salton Sea?

"In a recent interview with Undark, Blakowski drew parallels between the Salton Sea and the #GreatSaltLake — both are #hypersaline, terminal lakes that are rapidly shrinking; both contain areas where #nutrients from #agricultural activity enter and impact the #microbiome. Another similarity, she said, is that there are major knowledge gaps regarding the lake and its impact on human health." [NOT JUST HUMAN HEALTH!!!]

https://undark.org/2024/08/19/salton-sea-uncovering-lung-disease/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us