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Fighting Toxic Great Salt Lake Dust: Two Free Programs Every Family Should Know

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by Lauren Steinbrecher • Published on
Utah Insight

Dust storms from the shrinking Great Salt Lake may carry heavy metals like lead and arsenic—posing serious health risks. Not only are health experts worried about asthma attacks, but there’s concern those toxins can increase miscarriages, incarceration rates, and even long-term brain damage. 

That’s where two free Salt Lake County Health Department programs can help, offering tools and resources for families to take charge of their health.

‘We are worried about the dust’

Walking around a West Valley City playground, Candice Briese’s job is to hunt for heavy metals like arsenic and lead.

“Lead’s a neurotoxin. It can be a really fine particle which can get into a lot of different areas in our body,” she explained.

Working as a health educator in the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at the Salt Lake County Health Department, Briese conducts home visits and attends outreach events to test various products and surfaces.

She can’t see the toxins by just looking at an object, but using an XRF Analyzer (a specialized X-ray gun), Briese can tell in a matter of seconds if lead is present.

“The only way to know if lead’s in the environment is to have a test,” she said. “We’re happy to test products. We’re happy to test in your house.”

Briese said lead can cause joint pain, heart problems, and blood pressure issues in adults.

She described how its effects are even worse for children, and that it only takes a microscopic amount to poison a child.

“In children, we are going to see damage done to the brain, because it gets into this frontal section and destroys those brain cells,” she said.

Exposure to high amounts of lead can cause growth disruption in children, she said, leading to decreased IQ, health issues, and special needs requirements. 

“The damage done from lead is permanent,” she said.

Briese explained how concern is growing over Great Salt Lake dust as a problem source. 

“We are worried about the dust,” she said.

It’s inevitable that people will breathe in toxic metals found in the dust, she expressed. 

“It's so simple to get that dust from the environment into your system,” Briese said. “With the lake drying up, we are going to start to see this happening much more… We’re going to see more of it in the soil.”

Beyond physical and neurological damage, Briese talked about how lead can lead to serious community-wide issues.

“We tend to see an increased rate of incarceration and substance use,” she explained. “We’re going to run into fertility issues as well because lead can affect fertility. It increases miscarriages.”

 

WATCH: Fighting Toxic Great Salt Lake Dust: Two Free Programs Every Family Should Know

‘They think that’s normal’

Research from the University of Utah previously highlighted by Utah Insight shows dust storms worsening as the water recedes. 

Researchers found that specific demographics and areas, like the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, could be hit even harder.

“The majority of the people we do see are on the West Side,” said Jocylin Meza, health educator with the Salt Lake County Health Department’s Asthma Home Visiting Program.

Like with Briese, Meza carries out in-home visits, with a focus on fighting dust, poor air quality, and asthma symptoms.

Throughout the course of three home visits, Meza explained she provides asthma education, helps families identify triggers around the home, provides understanding of medication and inhaler use, strategizes an action plan, and provides free tools to aid in reducing symptoms.

“They do kind of bring up the topic of the Great Salt Lake and like, what does that mean to them, exactly?” she said, of some of the questions she gets. “They know it’s dustier and they know it’s not a great thing, but they don’t know exactly how that affects their asthma in general.”

Meza tells clients how small dust particles in the air can worsen inflammation in the lungs and trigger an asthma attack.

In walking around people’s homes, she said they’re often surprised by finding out furniture and décor like mattresses, curtains, blinds, and carpet can trap dust and make symptoms worse.

“A lot of the people that we work with don’t always realize that their asthma is as bad as it is,” she said. “They live their whole lives with asthma symptoms. So, they think that’s normal.”

Empowering families, improving quality of life

When Meza meets with families, she provides them with a folder full of information, an air purifier, and mattress cover for free. When funding allows, she explained they also provide cleaning products.

By her third visit, Meza described how many families are already seeing results.

“We’ve had families that their kids are going to the ER like six times a year,” she said. “After receiving this information… all of these kids, they see a reduction in ER visits.”

She said with the right medications, information, and changes around the house, clients become more confident in managing their asthma.

“They’re able to just improve their quality of life a lot more,” she said.

Back at the West Valley City park, Briese’s XRF testing gun registered high levels of lead next to the playground. 

“This area is a bit problematic if you’ve got kids playing too much in it,” she explained, pointing to the ground around her.

She’s also armed with ways to help families combat toxins, with information on blood testing to see how much lead is present and recommendations for lead mitigation.

Prevention of lead exposure is a huge talking point for her, with Briese telling families that the frequent hand washing can go a long way in rinsing off any contaminants before kids have a chance to ingest it.

“It really is in the knowledge,” she said. “It’s just knowing how to be safe with it around you and kind of live with it if you don’t have any other options.”

The two programs share one goal: Keep people as healthy as possible despite what’s in the environment, including Great Salt Lake dust.

“It's just having the information to empower so you can stay safe,” Briese said.
 

Click here to learn more about the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and to schedule a lead test.

Click here to learn more about the Asthma Home Visiting Program and to schedule a home visit.