Sarigiannis: “New wave of African dust in May

With the gradual retreat of the last wave African dustwhich covered Greece in places with an orange veil, it seems that we will face another one in May.

THE Demosthenes Sarigiannisprofessor of Environmental Engineering at AUTH, referred to ERT in increase in frequency of the phenomenon compared to previous years, but also in its early appearance before the summer season.

“It’s characteristic of her drought and associated desertification soils with the result that the total volume of particles is much larger”, explained Mr. Sarigiannis.

New wave of dust in May

Regarding the reappearance of the phenomenon, the professor noted that “We are waiting to see new episode with african dust until mid maywhich could be her same intensity with the current one, maybe above depending on the climatic conditions that will prevail”.

He further pointed out that “wind flows change as the climate changes”, leading to the intense phenomena.

However, he remained reassuring, since as he said, “From May onwards things it will be much better. Next fall we will have one more episode of African dust”.

The NSS is on alert

Mr. Sarigiannis spoke about the need for health preparedness against African dust: “We will have to adapt to it, which means that we will also have to the National Health System to be ready to deal with acute cases of people who will have problems”.

“This charge comes in addition to the particle charge which we have anyway in the big urban centers of Greece, in Athens, in Thessaloniki, in Volos, in Ioannina, where the air quality, objectively speaking, is not very good in relation to particles”.

Behrakis: Increased risk for children

The pulmonology professor expanded on the above Panagiotis Behrakis, noting that “This particulate pollution that characterizes and accompanies these phenomena is much larger at low altitude and this is something we have to take into account for the young children”.

This is because, as he said, “they are much more disturbed because they breathe to one meter or even 30 points if they crawl, as a result they inhale the pollution in a much higher concentration.”

“They also have greater sensitivity. So the children are those who constitute one highly sensitive population group in these kinds of natural phenomena,” he concluded.