Usually, yellow dust occurs between the spring season (March to May). Over the last 10 years, these yellow storms have been occurring for an extended period every year. It was 2.9 days in the 1980s, 5.3 days in the 1990s, and 9.8 days in the 2000s. South Korea even has yellow dust storms during fall and winter due to increasing air pollution levels.

Initial yellow dust storms usually originate from northern China and Mongolia as they have inland deserts creating massive amounts of yellow dust. The major sources of yellow dust that affect South Korea are the Gobi desert, where it is placed in the inner Mongolian plateau, the Northeastern desert areas. Subsequently, a total of 81% of yellow dust that occurs during spring comes from the inner Mongolian plateau and Gobi desert.

This is especially detrimental if the yellow dust level surges to “very bad”; however, most of the time in Seoul area and other urban regions usually reaches the “very bad” level. The concentrations of PM(particulate matter) above 151 is categorized as very bad. Seoul reached a peak of 545 micrograms. Busan and Jeju also reached 234 and 267 micrograms. These statistics show how yellow dust is becoming a serious and detrimental problem to humans.

Not only for the environmental problem but also human’s health could be destroyed by yellow dust storms during this season. Yellow dust can cause hazardous respiratory diseases and when extreme, it also leads to death at most. Especially the people who have sore throats or asthma suffer from the most adverse effects. These respiratory infections caused an increase in the daily mortality rate in an affected area by 1.7%. OECD also predicted that there will be 1,069 premature death per million in South Korea by 2060 due to the deteriorating air pollution.

These concerning health problems also restrict people’s outdoor activity to reduce their exposure to yellow dust. At home, it is important to make sure windows are properly closed to avoid yellow dust from entering. They should also place some air purifiers or air humidifiers in their home. When they need to go outdoors, they should prepare their KF-90 masks to protect their respiratory system.

Severe air pollution and deforestation increase the area becoming deserts in China and Mongolia. This increases the level of severe yellow dust storms attacking South Korea. More and more people are suffering from this fatal situation, and ‘we’ as humans who live on Earth must put in practice to make Earth eco-friendly.

송혜윤 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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