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In recent years, children living in the downstream of the Choshui River in Taiwan have been exposed to violent dust episodes. For the sake of the health of these children, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of protective equipment (sand-proof plastic cover and air purifier) installed outside/inside the classrooms on students’ pulmonary function and evaluate the health education program for preventing the adverse consequences of exposure to river-dust episodes. Public elementary school students in Yunlin County, which was severely affected by river-dust, were selected as the participants. Study 1 consisted of three-wave follow-up data (801 person-times) in high-/low-dust exposure regions to examine pulmonary function. Study 2 used 147 and 73 students in the high-/low-dust exposure regions, respectively, to establish our health education intervention. Paired t tests, repeated measures ANOVA, and generalized estimating equation were used to analyze the short- and long-term effects. The results showed that the students’ pulmonary function in schools that installed protective equipment was improved. The health education (such as the usage of correct masks and our designed PM2.5 full-cover sand-proof clothing) improved the students’ cognition and behaviors related to river-dust episodes and yielded both short- and long-term effects. Therefore, we suggest more schools with high-dust exposure to adopt protective equipment and health education program. Our designed PM2.5 full-cover sand-proof clothing can prevent from not only haze but also droplet transmission by infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

PM10 exposure has been found to have significant effects on a variety of physical conditions. However, whether it acts on psychopathology remains unclear. This study used 8-year data to examine the relationship between PM10 concentration and daily clinic visits of anxiety disorders. All residents of Yunlin County, Taiwan, which is a high river-dust exposure area, were selected as subjects. Data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), 2002–2009, were analyzed. Individuals with any ICD code of 300.0 and 300.2 were categorized as with anxiety disorders. PM10 data were based on the Lunbei station (located at Yunlin County) of EPA, Taiwan. Time-series analysis showed that, during the observed 8 years, the number of daily clinic visits for anxiety disorders increased with PM10 levels, and the relationship remained significant after unemployment rate, and the Weighted Price Index of Taiwan Stock Exchange in the same period were controlled for. In particular, we found that there is a linear dose-response effect between daily clinic visits and PM10 levels when PM10 300 μg/m3. Findings from this study highlight that high level of PM10 exposure derived from severe weather or environment condition may affect the occurrence of anxiety disorders. In addition, there seems to have a threshold of PM10 in elevating the risk of anxiety disorders.

Three exposure groups (high exposure, low exposure, and control), using six elementary schools in Yulin County, were selected to study the impacts of aeolian river-dust on school children’s exposure to PM10 and associated metals. One classroom and about five school-aged children’s houses for each school were chosen to collect indoor PM10 during the river-dust episodes (RDEs) and non-river-dust episodes (NRDEs). The results indicated that the river-dust episodes had significant impacts on the school-aged children’s exposure to concentrations of PM10 and metals, especially in the high exposure group. For the Ni and Mn metals, the 8-h school exposure concentrations during RDEs were both higher than the standards suggested by the California Environmental Protection Agency. Three interventions for protecting school children from being affected by the river dust during RDEs are suggested in this study. Among the three interventions, children who have a day off of school during RDEs can result in the greatest decrease in the exposure levels of PM10 and associated metals.