It’s March and the Yellow Dust is Back

Yesterday’s flurries in western and southern Korea were a mix of snow and yellow dust.  Particle levels were high enough in Gwangju, North Chungchung, and South Jeolla to trigger warnings from the Korea Meteorological Association to stay indoors.  The KMA expects this year to be a bad one for dust storms, so keep those masks handy.  Those cotton masks are next to useless.  Medical quality masks with particle-filtering respirators sell for $2.50 in the pharmacy section at local stores in the US.  Are these available outside medical supply stores in Korea?

7 Comments

  1. Mizar5 your flag
    Posted March 3, 2008 at 10:48 am | Permalink

    I started losing hair when I was living in Korea. Since living in the US, it’s all come back. I’m not blaming the yellow dust but the toxic black soot that hangs in the air of Seoul. How nice it was to come back to fresh NYC air and be able to look up and see blue sky more than just a handful of times all year.

  2. user-81 your flag
    Posted March 3, 2008 at 11:40 am | Permalink

    #1, when was this?

  3. Barney your flag
    Posted March 3, 2008 at 3:09 pm | Permalink

    Since I’ve been living in Seoul my fingernails have stopped growing and are turning yellow….could it be something to do with the yellow dust?

  4. Railwaycharm your flag
    Posted March 3, 2008 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    #3 it might have something to do with the big purple dinosaur suit.

  5. Zonath your flag
    Posted March 3, 2008 at 4:15 pm | Permalink

    #3 — Sounds more like malnutrition.

  6. Smackem your flag
    Posted March 4, 2008 at 5:22 am | Permalink

    And what do dust storms have to do with pollution?

    Seoul and most of Korea used to have massive pollution due to rapid modernziation. Its changing though, people here on average are much more conscious of recycling.

    http://www.time.com/time/asia/.....story.html

  7. Noodles your flag
    Posted March 4, 2008 at 11:50 am | Permalink

    #3,

    Korean cuisine has more to offer than soju and ramen.

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