The Association between Dust Storms and Daily Non-Accidental Mortality in the United States, 1993-2005.

Background: The impact of dust storms on human health has been studied in the context of Asian, Saharan, Arabian, and Australian storms, but there has been no recent population-level epidemiological research on the dust storms in North America. The relevance of dust storms to public health is likely to increase as extreme weather events are predicted to become more frequent with anticipated changes in climate through the 21st century.

Objectives: We examined the association between dust storms and county-level non-accidental mortality in the United States from 1993 through 2005.