Dust: It's no small stuff

Our episode on Heat would not be complete if we didn’t discuss the relationship heat has with things both big and small.  So, this one’s one and all about dust...

National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Health Impacts of Air Quality
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/climatechange/health_impacts/asthma/index.cfm

World Health Organization - Air Pollution
https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

In a world of cheaply made bargains, the social and commercial determinants of health are not jargon! Thank you for taking the time to listen.  ciao, for now.   

drmichelabull.com

Transcript

Dust:  It’s no small stuff

By Michela Bull, DHSc

Of all of Shakespeare’s plays 

and the plethora of ways 

He wrote and said word 

The character of Hamlet discussed, 

among other things

The Quintessence of Dust 

Our episode on Heat 

would not be complete 

if we didn’t discuss 

the relationship

heat has 

with things 

both big and small 

So, this one’s 

one and all 

about dust.

Too askew in view

will either commit, or acquit

But authors have said 

no small thing 

With few words 

about such a big thing!

The band, Kansas sang, 

All we are 

is Dust in the Wind….

Carl Sagan stated, 

We are made of star stuff…

Wrapped in sous-entendu, and restrain

In life’s complex domain

Don’t waste time on 

an analysis-paralysis plain

Humans are so powerful, 

and yet so fragile

On earth for a finite time

It’s been an ancient chime.

Yet…

it’s no small effort 

in exertion or expense 

the amount of time 

humans sequence

in the propagation 

of the particles 

of environmental dissidence:  

Dust!

No matter what the geography

It matters, the air quality!

Clean air is how our lungs reach home

But there are particular 

particulates in the air 

Everywhere….

In the deepest valleys and

Atop the highest of mountains 

where the air was once clear

This is the gist of dust.

Whether it’s an interior issue

or one left outside

Dust is all around 

We think we have particular control 

Over particulate arrangement and order

So, for the sake of intellectual argument 

We will shelter air pollution 

under an umbrella term

because dust 

includes the stuff 

left from combustion, 

burning that contributes to 

the ozone layer’s reduction 

Volatile Organic Compounds 

also known as VOCs

For all intents and purposes 

are nasty on our health, 

and can’t be concealed or contained

They leave traces 

in our living 

and working spaces

On a grander scale 

Dust is definitely 

no small stuff 

It is ubiquitous!

We pledge to polish it

We make fancy wipes and mops 

to vanquish it 

We clear acres of dirt for human development 

We till the soil to grow our food in it

Whether languishing on furniture 

Or sitting on the curb

All that we can 

and cannot see in the air 

Leaves our respiratory systems perturbed!

It’s evidence-based 

That particles in the air

Are never erased 

There’s always a trace 

Whether we can see them 

or taste them

We always breathe them

There’s nowhere to roam 

When lungs are trapped 

underneath

The planet’s heat and dust dome 

Here’s some desert code

A moving wall of dust 

Is called a haboob 

And no one needs its remnants 

in the bronchial tubes…

No kidding!

This is a health communication

About all the dust 

deemed as air pollution…

Our bodies fend off 

environmental assaults 

of all kinds 

all day long, 

That’s what our anatomy in part 

is designed to do 

Protect us

Even though logically 

It makes sense 

to separate environmental toxins 

Not only by origin story, 

but by category

Which inevitably 

breaks up the inventory 

Into truncated chapters, 

instead of completed novels

What am I saying?

It’s tough to get a 

complete data picture 

of anyone’s history 

in the research literature

Qualification means 

environmental toxins 

are separated by category

But quantification means 

how much, 

or how many

depending on whatever’s

being counted’s frequency! 

When we don’t know 

how to count 

so much of 

what we can’t see 

so much of the time

What we don’t learn is 

how much damage 

air pollution does

to all of us

or even one of us 

from cradle to grave….

Which is grave indeed

When one can concede

That we must heed

What our bodies need….

clean air particle free 

For you and me 

But in terms of our air being completely radical free 

Is the particular matter of all the noise, 

In other words

Le bruit of all the debris

Why do we have leaf blowers 

in the desert 

where there are few trees 

with big enough leaves 

to need a blower 

to blast them away? 

Given all that’s at stake

Asthma, valley fever, 

and other 

chronic and acute infections 

easily stirred by such dust quakes

What’s wrong with grabbing a rake?

Leaf blowers and other dust-kicking industries

do nothing but 

Faire du bruit!

Honestly

Often irresponsibly 

In the air 

In our noses 

In our ears

In our lungs

While winds and 

earth-moving machinery blow

In the soil dangers grow…

Particulates in the air 

are the number one health risk 

to the global population

Not the kind like flu or covid 

Spread by hand

or through a friendly inclination

but the non-communicable conundrum 

that causes chronic illness and disruption

to the respiratory and cardiac systems

in all 4 of the cardinal directions

This is not meant as irritation, 

but as respectful reiteration…

Air pollution has particularly devastating effects on children.

Dust:  It’s no small stuff!