When they accumulate in the body, they can affect brain development and lead to endocrine disruption and increased cancer risks.

In some areas, we think that the dust is more toxic than in a normal desert environment, and we think this is just because of human activity.

One example would be if you're in a low-lying area surrounded by agricultural lands, lands that have been cultivated for decades, there's a good chance that, uh, DDT or some of these highly toxic legacy pesticides, pesticides that are long-lived in the environment, are actually in the soil.

And, and some early work that we're doing right now is suggesting that is the case.

Amato and his team at the Dust Center are working on developing an early warning system to alert communities before a dust storm happens.

Those types of resources just don't exist.

I can't go somewhere and find out for three days from now- Is there going to be a dust storm? When is it going to start? Where is it going to be? How do I plan my day around that? The other thing is when there actually is a dust storm to try to identify, hey, there's a dust storm happening and it's traveling this way, you are going to be impacted in an hour or 30 minutes or 15 minutes.

And that's a type of early warning system.