Imagine an idyllic city with blue skies, puffy white clouds, and dancing flowers in the breeze. Now, look at reality: clouds of billowing smoke, honking from cars halted in traffic, and landmasses of ocean pollution. This is a typical day in an Asian city, but some cities have it much worse. In South Korea, specifically, there are days in which the whole country is blanketed with a grayish yellow. Buildings and traffic are colored yellow. Even the tight spaces between window sills fill with yellow. This yellow filter is known as ultrafine Yellow Dust.
Yellow Dust, a phenomenon that happens around East Asia seasonally from March to May, originates from the deserts of China and Mongolia. From there, the high-speed winds gather the sand, and these clouds of fine, dry-soil particles travel towards South Korea and, sometimes, even as east as the United States (Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California). These clouds spread across the sky with this yellow haze before the particles fall back to the ground.
Just as filthy as it looks, Yellow Dust has adverse health effects on respiratory function. Yellow Dust contains high concentrations of toxic substances, including mercury and cadmium, which are inhaled deeply into the lungs and released into the bloodstream. Compared to 76 micrograms of dust per cubic meter which is considered “very bad,” South Korea has reached a record measure of 2,070 micrograms. 97% of Koreans who participated in a survey by The Korea Times have found it difficult to live physically and mentally in the contaminated air, experiencing respiratory disease, eye disease, and lung disease. Ultrafine dust has even been linked with Parkinston’s disease and low birth weight. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it has been predicted that 1,069 South Koreans per million will die prematurely by 2060 as a direct result of air pollution.
Although there have been several measures to alleviate this issue, such as wearing air-filtering masks or sending out official announcements to stay indoors, these actions are not enough due to rapid development and urbanization. Charles S. Zender, a professor of earth system science at UCI, explains, “There is no smoking gun yet that proves that men are causing this but rather lots of anecdotal evidence. The puzzle of Asian dust is a huge question in weather science right now, and if human activity is proven to be the cause, it stands to reason that this problem is going to keep getting worse” (French).
Desertification is one contributor to the Yellow Dust phenomenon. As population increases, housing demands consume more and more wood. Logging and harvesting of arable land, thus, has led to desertification. Coupled with the growing production of coal power plants and numerous factories in both China and Korea, climate change will worsen Yellow Dust’s impact on the global health and economy. We should consider our actions globally sooner than later, unless we want to be shrouded in yellow, instead of pretty pink cherry blossoms.
Work Cited
Brerner, Catherine. “Air Pollution to Cause 6-9 Million Premature Deaths and Cost 1% GDP by 2060.” OECD, 2016, https://www.oecd.org/env/air-pollution-to-cause-6-9-million-premature-deaths-and-cost-1-gdp-by-2060.htm.
Fifield, Anna, and Yoonjung Seo. “Smog Becomes a Political Issue in South Korean Election.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Apr. 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/smog-becomes-a-political-issue-in-south-korean-election/2017/04/27/afd55dba-1a2d-11e7-8598-9a99da559f9e_story.html.
French, Howard W. “China’s Growing Deserts Are Suffocating Korea.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/world/china-s-growing-deserts-are-suffocating-korea.html.
Kang, Dongmug. “Fine, Ultrafine, and Yellow Dust: Emerging Health … – JKMS.” The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, 2013, https://jkms.org/pdf/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.5.621.
Park, Si-soo. “97% Of Koreans Suffer ‘Physical or Mental’ Distress Due to Fine Dust: Survey.” TheKoreaTimes, 15 Jan. 2019, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/03/119_262055.html.
Yoon, Hahna. “How to Protect Yourself from Air Pollution While Traveling.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/travel/air-pollution-face-masks-aqi.html.
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