Dust Sources and Impact: A Review

Dust from coal and rocks takes more life than the obvious accidents recorded in the mining and construction industry do. Among all proven fossil fuel reserves, coal accounts for 94%, whereas oil and natural gas account for 6% only. With the constant population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and the current technology age, the demand for power would continue to surge, thus coal use would remain inevitable and so would Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis (CWP) persist. Also, with the high demand for rocks and their related products, coupled with polishing and tilling from the construction and real estate developers silicosis would be a setback that needs to be looked at more keenly. Research has identified specific factors such as duration of dust exposure, coal rank, stages of CWP, and types of work and coal mining categories, to be significantly associated with the high risk for CWP. Arid and semi-arid regions are the main global dust sources, where particles can be lifted into the atmosphere, transported, and deposited far away from their sources. The Sahara and the Sahel regions of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia Plateau, Alxa Plateau, Hexi Corridor, Tarim Basin, Taklimakan Desert, and the edge of deserts are the main sources of fugitive dust. The coordinates 351-541N and 731-1351E located in Northern China is the second largest source of atmospheric dust in the world. Dust particles influence the cloud formation processes, optical properties, precipitation rates by behaving as cloud condensation nuclei with the altered chemical properties affecting climate through modified direct radioactive forcing properties and therefore, indirectly influence the global atmospheric radiation budget. Conversely, atmospheric mineral dust rich in especially Phosphorus (P) and Iron (Fe) is transported from the Bodélé Depression in Chad to the deficient Amazon rainforest and contributes considerably to the fertilization of its soils.