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Out of Africa: bacteria, fungi, viruses

A study confirms that dust crossing the Atlantic carries particles
that pose
a health risk.
By DAVID BALLINGRUD

Bacteria, fungi and probably viruses are crossing the Atlantic Ocean
to
Florida (THIS IS THE STATE I , TRISH LIVE IN) in clouds of dust from
drought-stricken areas of Africa.

Photos taken by NASA satellites and on-the-ground air samples confirm
the
trans-Atlantic movement of tiny, potentially hazardous particles,
according
to an article published today in the scientific journal Aerobiologia.

The danger posed by the global movement of dust clouds to the United
States
is uncertain. Further study is needed, said Eugene Shinn of the U.S.
Geological Survey office in St. Petersburg, one of the article's
authors.

"The identification of microbes in transported dust is
important. . . . They
may be a source of disease above and beyond that caused by exposure
(to
dust)," Shinn said.
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Ongoing tests have not identified a particle -- bacteria, fungi or
virus --
that by itself is a human disease threat, said Dale Griffin, a USGS
microbiologist and another author of the Aerobiologia article.

But about 10 percent of the particles found are
considered "opportunistic,"
Griffin said, meaning they could cause illness in a person whose
immune
system was already compromised by illness or age.

About 25 percent of the particles threaten only plants, and the
remainder,
thus far, appear specific to soil and do not constitute a health
threat.

"That's what we've seen so far, but it's a numbers game and we're
still
testing," he said. Shinn and Griffin were joined on the paper by
Virginia
Garrison of the USGS and Jay Herman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in
Maryland.

Garrison, who has gathered dust samples in the Virgin Islands
National Park,
said the dust is sometimes visible as a reddish haze as it approaches
from
the east. After a sample of air is collected, it is drawn through a
filter
and the filter is examined.

Shinn and other scientists have struggled to get the scientific
establishment to recognize that African dust is a health hazard. With
continued NASA funding for the study, and with publication of the
Aerobiologia article, Shinn said he is hopeful more money will be
forthcoming.

"The level of interest is spiraling upward," he said. "I've been
asked to
brief U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and I'm hopeful other federal
agencies
will have interest, too." A workshop on the subject will be in the
USGS St.
Petersburg offices in August, he said.

There is nothing new about clouds of dust blowing westward across the
Atlantic. African dust has produced red-tinged sunsets in south
Florida for
years.

The dust comes every year during northern Africa's dry season, when
storms
in the Sahara Desert and Sahel grassland region generate vast clouds
of
dust. These clouds then are pushed westward by the same
easterly "trade
winds" that drive hurricanes toward U.S. and Caribbean shorelines
every
year. Typically, it takes five to seven days for the dust clouds to
cross
the Atlantic.

So much dirt makes the journey that air plants in the Amazon depend on
nutrients derived from the airborne soil. Florida receives more than
50
percent of all microbe-laden African dust that reaches the United
States,
according to a statement released jointly by the USGS and NASA.

A long-term drought in North Africa has caused larger and more
frequent dust
storms in recent years. And, thanks to a new generation of Earth-
observing
satellites, the dust clouds can be seen and tracked as never before.

Last year, in February, a NASA satellite photographed one of the
largest
dust storms ever observed. About as big as Spain, the brown cloud was
seen
leaving Africa, heading west across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean
and
the United States. Smaller clouds make the trip more frequently.

But there's more than just dirt in the dust. Bacteria and fungi are
confirmed hitchhikers, and viruses are almost certainly present, too,
although confirmation of those extremely small particles is about a
month
away, Griffin said.

"At this point we don't know how serious the health concerns are," he
said.
"We're just trying to lay down a baseline of data, to show what's
there."

I found this article at
http://www.sptimes.com

Luckly most of us are already taking Sigma 2000 and Cytopro.....I
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Till next time :>)
Trish
trish@...
Quality Vitamins and Herbal Formulas since 1992
http://www.herbals-unlimited.com