Yellow Dust

I remember my first spring here in Korea...the cars got kind of yellow. I assumed it was the same thing that always happened to cars in the South--pollen. Allergies kicked in and hay fever symptoms were commonplace. However, I was soon educated that this was not mere pollen but yellow dust or yellow sand.

Yellow dust is basically sand from the Gobi desert that gets kicked up into the atmosphere and blown across East Asia. The really harmful part comes in due to the pollution. Heavy metal pollutants, coming particularly from China although other places as well, attached itself to the dust. So by inhaling the dust, the pollutants also get into your system. The dust becomes a conduit to bring down the harmful things in the air to our breathing space. They predict it will be especially bad this year.

At this point, it seems that many schools are cancelling outdoor events (like sports) when the level reaches 300 micrograms per cubic meter. 150 or less is not really a big deal. Overall, Daejon is much better than many other places in Korea and not nearly as bad as Seoul or other northern areas. Some mountains help protect us some as well. I checked the weather on Yahoo today and it said "Widespread dust". I checked the levels via the military bases and the ones closest to us were around 600 today. Seoul and most places were between 800-1000. It is a good day to stay inside. I think we would do well to invest in some stylish masks...

I don't know how well you can see it, but the yellow look and haze is due to the dust.