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Wildfires are getting worse, and so is the deadly smoke they bring with them

Grist

Lead can get into particulate matter when a fire burns forest trees or other plants that have taken it up after it was released into the air or deposited in the soil, usually as a result of decades-old car emissions or industrial processes. “If lead or any other toxic hitchhiker is on that PM2.5 A new lead crisis? By mid-century, as the U.S.

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Why massive Saharan dust plumes are blowing into the US

Grist

A satellite captures a dust plume leaving Africa on June 19. By contrast, the lush rainforests to the south of the Sahara have trees that both block the wind and hold on to the soil with their roots, keeping all the muck from taking to the air. The dust plume arrived in the Caribbean a few days after it left Africa.

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