Asian Smog

[Greg 0]

DENVER (AP) - A dust storm that started in Mongolia and picked up industrial pollution from China has spread a haze across a quarter of the mainland United States, experts said Tuesday. The whitish haze has been seen from Calgary, Alberta, to Arizona to Aspen, where weekend levels of particulate - matter that reduces visibility and can cause respiratory problems - quadrupled from the previous weekend. Gene Feldman, an oceanographer from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in genbelt, Md., said aircraft have been monitoring matter in the dust clouds. ``At one time, this dust cloud was bigger than Japan,'' he said. Russ Schnell, director of observatory operations for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, said the cloud will reach the East Coast, but should dissipate in the next several days. In late 1998, scientists claimed to have documented the spread of industrial pollution from China to the United States, where it caused pollution levels as high as two-thirds of federal health limits. ``This storm is a godsend to pollution researchers,'' Schnell said. ``People are finally realizing that what have been saying for years is true. Pollution from Asia is being carried across the oceans.'' The two experts said it was unusual for such matter to be so visible to the naked eye. In Aspen, particulate levels measured 58 millionths of a gram per cubic meter of air, compared with 14 millionths of a gram a week earlier. ``We had the same kind of haze when Mount St. Helen's erupted but the particulate didn't come down to the ground level as much,'' said Lee Cassin, director of Aspen's environmental health department.