the impacts of dust and sand storms (dss) on people, crops, livestock, infrastructure and health are well documented. data have accumulated on the deleterious effects of dust aerosols when they settle on plants. sand blasting of low growing plants is a common cause of failure in reforestation efforts. burial of plants by moving sands are also a cause of much damage. the physics of moving sand a...

We have searched for interstellar or circumstellar absorption lines in the center of Ca II K towards bright A-type stars that are mostly within 80 pc of the Sun. Narrow absorption features are found in about 30 % of the 28 normal main-sequence A stars and 18 metal-deficient λ Bootis stars studied. We have determined surface gravities and projected rotational velocities. Most of the stars with d...

Submerged arc welding contributes to approximately 10% of the total welding. Approximately 10% -15% of the flux gets converted into very fine particles termed as flux dust before and after welding, due to transportation and handling. If welding is performed without removing these very fine particles from the flux, the gases generated during welding are not able to escape, thus it may result int...

If a significant fraction of metals is in dust, star-forming cores with metallicity higher than a critical value ∼ 10−6 − 10Z⊙ are able to fragment by dust cooling, thereby producing low-mass cores. Despite being above the critical metallicity, a metallicity range is found to exist around 10−5 −10Z⊙ where low-mass fragmentation is prohibited. In this range, three-body H2 formation starts at low...

Mining operations are potential sources of airborne particulate metal and metalloid contaminants through both direct smelter emissions and wind erosion of mine tailings. The warmer, drier conditions predicted for the Southwestern US by climate models may make contaminated atmospheric dust and aerosols increasingly important, due to potential deleterious effects on human health and ecology. Dust...

We have discovered molecular hydrogen in a fourth quasar damped Lyα system (hereafter DLA). The UVES spec-trograph on the 8.2m ESO Kueyen telescope has allowed the detection of H 2 in gas with low metallicity, Z/Z 10 −2 , and high neutral hydrogen column density, N (H i) 2.6 × 10 21 cm −2 , at redshift z abs = 3.3901 toward QSO 0000–2620. The measured H 2 fractional abundance of f (H 2) 4 × 10 ...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic, inflammatory disease with an estimated global prevalence of 0.3-1.0%. An unexplained association exists between low formal education and the development of RA independent of smoking. It is established that RA is initiated in the lungs and that various occupations associated with dust, fume and metal inhalation can increase the risk of RA devel...

Increased mortality in COPD among construction workers exposed to inorganic dust. I.A. Bergdahl, K. Torén, K. Eriksson, U. Hedlund, T. Nilsson, R. Flodin, B. Järvholm. #ERS Journals Ltd 2004. ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to find out if occupational exposure to dust, fumes or gases, especially among never-smokers, increased the mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ...

Anthropogenic sources account for much of the zinc (Zn) in the environment. Constraining the isotopic composition of anthropogenic Zn is therefore essential to understanding the environmental biogeochemical cycling of Zn isotopes. This study examines the isotopic variability in several different categories of anthropogenic Zn. Pure Znmetal and Zn dust are the rawmaterials used in many Zn-contai...

OBJECTIVES A growing number of epidemiological studies are showing that ambient exposure to particulate matter air pollution is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease; however, whether occupational exposure increases this risk is not clear. The aim of the present study was to examine whether occupational exposure to particulate air pollution increases the risk for ischaemic heart disease and ...