Asthma, Aspergillus, Coral and African Dust

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_http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/africandust.h

tml_

(http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/africandust.htm\

l)

" Garrison and her colleagues discovered that a toxic fungal pathogen known

as Aspergillus sydowii was traveling in this African dust and could be a main

culprit behind sea fan diseases. "

Asthma, Coral and African Dust

Michele Monteil studying a patient.

Just over the course of her own lifetime, physician _Michele Monteil_

(http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/bio_monteil_mic\

hele.

html) has found an alarming rise of childhood asthma in her native

Trinidad. Levels of asthma here are among the highest in the world. The

incidence of

asthma on Barbados and nearby Trinidad, as documented by the Caribbean

Allergy and Respiratory Association (CARA), has increased 17-fold since 1973.

Concurrently, marine biologist _Ginger Garrison_

(http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/bio_garrison_gi\

nger.html) has noted an

increasing incidence of sea fan disease in the tropical waters around the

Caribbean. Could these two disparate events be connected? Independently, these

researchers have linked their target ailments to a surprising single suspect

–

African dust.

Every year, several hundred million tons of African dust are transported

across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, Central and South America. Summer storms

can lift dust as high as 15,000 feet over the African deserts and then out

across the Atlantic. Garrison and her colleagues discovered that a toxic fungal

pathogen known as Aspergillus sydowii was traveling in this African dust and

could be a main culprit behind sea fan diseases.

Ginger Garrison studying a sea fan.

It appears episodic dust storms are capable of depositing disease-ridden

particles across the Caribbean. These particles are carried in persistent trade

winds blowing across the Atlantic from the Sahara Desert and bordering

drought-ridden areas such as Lake Chad. Climatologist _Jim Hurrell_

(http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/bio_hurrell_jim\

..html) has

discovered that the strength of these tradewinds is, in part, attributable to

a remarkable feature of the atmosphere that sits over the north Atlantic: two

gigantic air masses, one high pressure, the other low-known as the North

Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). (Some scientists refer to the NAO as the Arctic

Oscillation or alternatively the North Annular Oscillation.)

The two air masses of the NAO propel storms up into the northern regions of

Europe and Eurasia while simultaneously shuttling dust from Africa over to the

Americas. During the 1980s and the 1990s, these two air systems tended to be

locked in an intense positive phase one winter after the next. This pattern

has persisted for the last 20-30 years.

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