I am always suspicious of Dust Clouds... as they can be a warning abouit the ever present Nibiru in our System.
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The haze obscuring Denver's mountain views this week is not the region's typical springtime pollution - it rode the wind into Colorado from 10,000 miles away.
"It was not the brown cloud; it was a white cloud. And it came in from Central Asia," said Russ Schnell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder.
Scientists say such Asian dust storms can carry lung-clogging pollutants and other dangerous debris.
But this cloud is much smaller than one that settled over the Front Range three years ago, spiking pollution levels that triggered health alerts, Schnell said.
"The worst of it apparently went north of us," he said.
Although this week's cloud is the first significant one in more than a year, such events are relatively common this time of year, he said.
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In Central Asia's blustery early spring, the grass hasn't grown long enough to hold dust in place, Schnell said, "so the wind picks it up, and away it goes."
State health experts watched the dust roll in on Tuesday, said Christopher Dann, a spokesman for the state health department's air division.
The white haze is visually obvious, he said, but is not likely to affect people's health, even those with lung or heart problems.
Regional air pollution monitors show that dust levels remain in the "good" range, Dann said Wednesday.
"We think it's high enough that it's not affecting us down here," he said of the dust, some of which was carried by the jet stream.
But Gene Shinn, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Florida, said it's likely the dust contains live microorganisms, including disease- causing ones.
Shinn's team has pulled 200 types of microbes from plumes of African dust swirling into Florida, he said. Those included aspergillus, a fungus that can sicken people who have HIV or AIDS, he said.
No one has enough information yet on the living component of Asian dust, he said, but when heavy clouds head for Korea, the government advises people to bring livestock indoors, fearing foot-and-mouth disease.
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