University of Utah scientists have determined sediments from the exposed playa of the Great Salt Lake show elevated "oxidative potential," indicating greater risk to human health.
Kevin Perry from the U's Department of Atmospheric Sciences talks about a new study that is the first to analyze the dust’s oxidative potential, or a measure of its ability to react with oxygen.
“We devised a way to dissolve the metals using increasingly caustic acids to figure out at what level are these metals leaching from the particles,” Perry said. “It turns out that the dust from Great Salt Lake has more leachable metals that are bioavailable than we would wish.”
