Investigating the role of fine dust caused by drought and its impact on the health of Middle Eastern countries

Abstract

The challenge of dust and fine dust has been affecting the southwestern regions of Iran for several years, and every year large parts of the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, especially southwest Asia, are affected by the dust phenomenon. The present study aimed to investigate the role of fine dust caused by drought and its effect on the health of Middle Eastern countries. Present study was conducted based on library resources (articles published in international databases) and descriptive analysis. In the present study, 48 articles and reports presented in reputable Persian databases (Civilica, MagIran, and Scientific Information Database – SID) and English databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, and Google Scholar search engine were obtained and reviewed separately. The selected keywords for searching the databases were: fine dust, drought, drought, Middle Eastern, and health. The main cause of the current dust is related to the drought caused by external centers, more information and arrangements should have been thought of, and we even expect that forest fires will increase again in the summer season. The investigations of this study showed that the number of dust foci has increased 3.5 times in the past two decades in the countries where the dust originates, and the latest origin of storms in the southwestern regions of Iran, Syria and Iraq have been determined in 14 individual centers.