Inhaling Dust in the UAE: Will it Take Your Breath Away?

What does Dubai's sand storm mean to your health?

As we live in a city built within a desert, it becomes a usual habit to expect a couple of sand storms when the season changes. Not only that, when the wind blows into the empty sand pits next to your residential building or against the dusty windshield of your car, you can’t help asking yourself: "inhaling all of Dubai's dust is costing me how much of my health?" At least in Dubai, it does not seem to be the case that residents wear face masks to filter out the pollutants in the air similarly to people in China or Japan. Does this mean Dubai’s air is much cleaner or is it just another revelation that we don’t seem to care much about our respiratory health?

In 2015, many of UAE's residents were shocked

To discover that World Bank (Little Green Data Book 2015) has listed UAE as the worst country in the world measure in air quality. What they have measured was PM2.5, the density of fine particles in the air below 2.5 microns (30 times smaller than a human hair), which is easier to penetrate deep into your lungs to cause various respiratory diseases including lung cancer. They have used satellite observations of airborne particles with models of atmospheric chemistry and ground-level monitoring of particles in nearly 700 locations around the world to pick UAE as the worst country in air pollution with 80 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter - worse than China (73 micrograms) and India (32 micrograms). UAE officials have immediately discredited the report saying the figures are significantly inconsistent with what they have seen from field measurements. The local officials also claimed it is based on outdated data and its calculation method is not trustworthy either. Indeed, in the follow up report issued by the same institute, UAE's figures (41 micrograms) have improved to beat China (54 micrograms) and India’s (43 micrograms). The same institute also put a commentary saying that the calculation method is skewed to negatively misrepresent desert countries like the UAE. 

Still, moving down in ranking below China or India does not mean Dubai's air quality is good enough to put us at ease. UAE's PM2.5 readings from the revised report is still at 41 micrograms, which is far worse than other cleaner countries such as New Zealand (9 micrograms) or North Europe (6 micrograms in Norway) and similar to that of Hong Kong (40 micrograms). Some local researchers say, "the nature of the UAE is arid and sandy ... (but that) does not mean that the air quality is poor since sand is a natural component found in nature and not generated through combustion." However, if you broaden your research, you come to conclude that fine particles, either nature-born or not, are still harmful to humans. How less harmful are these sand dusts than emissions from chimneys? It is still all under debate.

When it comes to the linkage between UAE’s air quality and health

At least two contradictory points come under radar. First, putting other diseases aside, at least you are more likely to develop asthma in the UAE. Several studies conducted in the Gulf countries with a high rate of sandstorms, confirmed the increased prevalence of asthma in those countries. Second, however, mortality from air pollution is very low in the UAE. WHO report for the Eastern Mediterranean (Regional Strategy for Health and Environment 2014-2019) confirmed: "UAE has a very low mortality resulting from environmental consequences such as air pollution compared to other countries in the region."

Something further to be noted is that the UAE government has been making serious efforts to improve their air quality since the 2015 report. It has added 11 monitoring stations across the country and built a real-time reporting system. UAE has imposed tougher regulations to control activities significantly impacting air quality such as cement and asbestos production. More recently, the government announced that the UAE will achieve 90 per cent air purity in less than three years as part of their National Agenda 2021 which includes careful supervision of factories and construction industries in the UAE.

Still confused?

Well, let’s try to summarize the situation as follows: In terms of PM2.5 reading, the UAE is not the worst country, nor among the best countries. Yes, we may discount the numbers on the measuring device and get less worried as dusts from sand dunes may not be as bad as other chemical pollutants. Therefore, you might not need to be as concerned as today’s visibility from Burj Khalifa suggests. However, don't forget it is always recommended to minimize exposure to dusty air either by refraining from outside activity or putting on protective gears (a.k.a. face masks).