Yellow Dust Had 12x More Metal Content

The yellow dust that blew over the country on April 8-9 was analyzed to contain as much as 12 times more heavy metal, such as iron and magnesium, than average.

However, it was much lower than environmental and industrial safety standards, causing no direct harm to humans.

According to an analysis by the Ministry of Environment, the concentration of iron in the yellow sand was 35.1603μg (a microgram 1μg is a millionth of a gram) per cubic meter, making it 12 times higher than the average of a clear day last year. Magnesium was around nine times higher.

Other than these, heavy metals included: lead 0.1045μg, cadmium 0.0059μg, chrome 0.0274 μg, copper 0.1889 μg, and nickel 0.0194 μg. This is a rate equal to, or two times higher than the average of yellow sand in year 2002 to 2005.

The annual environmental, industrial safety standards for heavy metals is 1,000μg per cubic meter. The standards for lead is 1.5μg, cadmium 50 μg, and chrome 500 μg. This means the concentration of heavy metals on April 8-9 were under the set standards. There is no set standard for iron.

However, the Ministry of Environment explained, “The concentration of harmful heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead, and chrome is low, so it should not be very harmful, but since the concentration of fine dust and iron is high, people should refrain from going outside when there is yellow sand.

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com