Salton Sea -- an area rich with lithium -- documented as hot spot for child respiratory issues

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://today.usc.edu/salton-sea-an-area-rich-with-lithium-documented-as-hot-spot-for-child-respiratory-issues/

Salton Sea — an area rich with lithium — documented as hot spot for child respiratory issues
A USC study finds boys and girls living closest to the landlocked lake experience more respiratory issues than those farther away.

October 28, 2024
By Leigh Hopper
Windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea harms the respiratory health of children living nearby, triggering asthma, coughing, wheezing and disrupted sleep, USC research shows.

The findings also indicate that children living closest to the sea, who are exposed to more dust in the air, may be the most affected.

The study, published in Environmental Research, found that 24% of children in the area have asthma — far higher than the national rate of 8.4% for boys and 5.5% for girls. The abnormally high rate raises health experts’ concerns about the children’s health in this predominantly low-income community of color 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Furthermore, experts say, the dust problem is likely to intensify in a hotter climate, with evaporation exposing more and more of the lake bed, or playa, leading to more dust events.

…

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.120070

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Headline vaguely implies a connection with lithium, doesn't appear the paper does so.

Dry saline lake beds are a source of dust in general, especially alkaline dust (which is an irritant if inhaled) as noted in the paper.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. It's not lithium per se, it's lithium production

https://today.usc.edu/salton-sea-an-area-rich-with-lithium-documented-as-hot-spot-for-child-respiratory-issues/

… A combination of development and lithium mining may promise more economic opportunities — and an increase in truck traffic likely to kick up more dust and further aggravate respiratory health issues.

“These rural environmental justice communities are facing health consequences due to local dust events,” said first author Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental health at USC. “The agricultural industry in Imperial Valley has used excessive amounts of water, but one of the impacts of water conservation is the shrinking of the sea.”

…