Taiwan Quick Take: Sandstorms harbor microbes

Sandstorms be carrying close to 20 kinds of microbes that pose a health hazard, according to research released by the Environmental Protection Administration yesterday. Researchers found that when a sandstorm hit Taiwan earlier this year, the number of germs and funguses in the atmosphere rose by five to six times that of regular days. During the storm, the administration launched a hot-air balloon and took samples to examine whether microbes had been carried along with the weather system. The administration said scientists explained that some microbes could travel thousands of kilometers if shrouded by sand grains from ultraviolet rays from the sun that would otherwise kill them. The environmental agency said that Taiwan, Japan and Korea were on the pathway of sandstorms. The duration of such storms can last from merely a few hours to close to a week. The average size of the germs carried by the sandstorms ranges from 2.5 micrometers (one-millionth of a meter) to 10 micrometers, which are not easily filtered out by nose hairs, it said.