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Relationship between African dust carried in the Atlantic trade winds and surges in pediatric asthma attendances in the Caribbean

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Abstract

Asthma is epidemic in developed and developing countries including those in the Caribbean where it is widely believed that African dust, transported in high concentrations in the Trade Winds every year, is a major causative factor. The link between asthma and dust in the Caribbean is based largely on anecdotal evidence that associates sharp increases in the occurrence of asthma symptoms with hazy conditions often caused by dust. Here we report on a 2-year study of the relationship between the daily concentrations of dust measured in on-shore Trade Winds at Barbados and pediatric asthma attendance rates at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). We looked for large increases in QEH daily attendances in relation to daily dust concentrations as previously suggested by anecdotal observations. We could not find any obvious relationship although there may be more subtle linkages between dust and asthma. Our measurements show, however, that the concentration of dust in the size range under 2.5 μm diameter is sufficiently high as to challenge United States Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards for respirable particles. Thus, African dust may constitute a health threat of a different nature, producing symptoms less obvious than those of asthma.

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Acknowledgments

We thank L. Custals, and T. Snowdon (University of Miami), and C. Shea (Barbados) for technical support, and the family of E. Manning for permitting us to operate our laboratory on their property on Barbados. This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Author notes

  1. Raana Naidu

    Present address: Greenville Hospital System, 701 Grove Road, Greenville, SC, 29605, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL, 33149–1098, USA

    Joseph M. Prospero

  2. Public Health Laboratory, Winston Scott Polyclinic, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, West Indies

    Edmund Blades

  3. Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, West Indies

    Raana Naidu & Haresh Thani

  4. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, West Indies

    Raana Naidu & Haresh Thani

  5. Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, West Indies

    George Mathison & Marc C. Lavoie

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  1. Joseph M. Prospero
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Correspondence to Joseph M. Prospero.

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Prospero, J.M., Blades, E., Naidu, R. et al. Relationship between African dust carried in the Atlantic trade winds and surges in pediatric asthma attendances in the Caribbean. Int J Biometeorol 52, 823–832 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-008-0176-1

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