“Precautionary principle” in medicine calls for preventive intervention to avoid health hazards – The Salt Lake Tribune

Report on Air Quality and Public Health in Utah: The Great Salt Lake Crisis and Sustainable Development Goals

1.0 Introduction: The Evolving Air Pollution Landscape

A severe winter inversion event in 2007 highlighted the significant public health challenges posed by air pollution along Utah’s Wasatch Front. This event served as a catalyst for increased awareness and action among medical professionals, the public, and policymakers, leading to the formation of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE). While mitigation efforts have reduced the severity of winter inversions, the nature of air pollution in Utah is evolving. Current challenges are increasingly driven by climate-related factors such as wildfire smoke and ground-level ozone, directly impacting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

2.0 The Great Salt Lake: An Emerging Environmental and Public Health Crisis

A new and critical environmental threat has emerged: the potential creation of a toxic dust bowl from the receding shoreline of the Great Salt Lake. The desiccation of the lake, resulting from extensive water diversions from its inlets, represents a failure in sustainable resource management and poses a direct threat to several SDGs.

• SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation): The crisis is a direct consequence of unsustainable water management practices that prioritize diversions over the ecological needs of the lake.
• SDG 15 (Life on Land): The shrinking lake constitutes the degradation of a critical ecosystem, threatening biodiversity and terrestrial life dependent on it.

This situation reflects a historical pattern of delayed governmental intervention against known environmental hazards. A comprehensive report by UPHE, titled Downwind, synthesizes over 500 medical studies to document the public health hazards associated with the lake’s disappearance.

3.0 Analysis of Health Hazards from Great Salt Lake Dust

The health impacts of dust from the exposed lakebed are multifaceted and severe, undermining progress toward SDG 3. The risks extend beyond visible dust storms, as the most hazardous fine particulate matter can remain airborne for extended periods.

3.1 Composition of Toxic Dust

The dust from the lakebed is hazardous due to its physical properties and the accumulation of toxic contaminants. The body’s inflammatory response to inhaled particulate matter is magnified by the presence of numerous pollutants from various sources.

1. Heavy Metals: Over 120 years of mining operations have contaminated the ecosystem with carcinogenic and neurotoxic heavy metals.
2. Industrial Chemicals: Decades of industrial activity have introduced persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins, furans, and PCBs into the lakebed.
3. Agricultural Runoff: Herbicides and insecticides have been applied around the lake’s shores for decades.
4. Wastewater Discharge: At least 28 sewage treatment plants discharge effluent containing “forever chemicals” (PFAS), PAHs, plastic nanoparticles, and pharmaceutical metabolites into the lake’s watershed.
5. Radionuclides: Residual radioactive contaminants from historical nuclear testing in the region persist in the Great Basin and lakebed.

3.2 Cumulative and Synergistic Health Effects

Exposure to a combination of toxins, even at individually “safe” levels, can result in additive or synergistic toxicity. Global precedents from other desiccated lakes show profound public health consequences, including increased disease rates and reduced life expectancy. Vulnerable populations, particularly fetuses, infants, and children, face the highest risk of irreversible, life-long harm. Evidence also indicates the potential for genetic and epigenetic damage affecting subsequent, unexposed generations.

4.0 Policy Implications and the Precautionary Principle

Current and proposed development projects threaten to exacerbate the crisis by diverting additional water from the Great Salt Lake’s tributaries. These projects include:

• The Bear River Development Project
• Inland port expansions
• Data centers
• Nuclear power plants

These actions are in direct opposition to the principles of sustainable development. The medical community advocates for the application of the “precautionary principle,” which calls for preventive intervention to avoid plausible health hazards, even when scientific evidence is incomplete. Applying this principle is essential for safeguarding public health and aligning state policy with commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals.

5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations

The continued degradation of the Great Salt Lake poses an unacceptable risk to public health, environmental stability, and the long-term viability of communities in Northern Utah. Failure to act decisively threatens to create an environment where the air is no longer safe to breathe, thereby undermining all other economic and social objectives.

It is recommended that state policymakers:

1. Halt projects that would further divert water from the Great Salt Lake watershed.
2. Implement aggressive water conservation and management strategies to restore lake levels, in line with SDG 6.
3. Prioritize public health and environmental protection in all future development decisions, fully integrating the principles of SDG 3 and SDG 11.
4. Utilize the findings of the UPHE Downwind report to inform evidence-based policy aimed at preventing a public health catastrophe.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

  The article is fundamentally about the public health crisis caused by air pollution in Utah. It is written by a physician and details the health consequences, including deaths, diseases, and the specific vulnerability of children and future generations to toxins from the drying Great Salt Lake. It explicitly states, “people died from it” in reference to air pollution events and warns of “profound” public health consequences if the lake disappears.

• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

  The core environmental problem described is the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake due to “massive diversions of the lake’s inlets.” The article also details the severe pollution of the lake’s ecosystem from industrial sources (heavy metals, dioxins) and sewage treatment plants (“forever chemicals,” PAHs, plastic nanoparticles), directly addressing the protection of water-related ecosystems and the reduction of water pollution.

• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

  The article focuses on the environmental quality of life in Northern Utah, particularly the Wasatch Front. It discusses how poor air quality from winter inversions, wildfire smoke, ozone, and now toxic dust makes the region less habitable, to the point that people consider leaving the state. This directly relates to reducing the adverse environmental impact of cities, with a special focus on air quality.

• SDG 13: Climate Action

  A direct link to climate change is made when the article states, “Utah air pollution has changed with the climate. Winter inversions are less severe, but wildfire smoke and ozone are increasing.” This highlights the community’s need to adapt to new and evolving climate-related environmental hazards.

• SDG 15: Life on Land

  The article centers on the degradation of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, an inland water body. It describes the contamination of the lakebed, soil, and surrounding environment with a variety of toxins. The call to “save Great Salt Lake” is a call to conserve and restore a critical terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystem.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 3.9: Substantially reduce deaths and illnesses from pollution

   This target is central to the article’s argument. The text details how air pollution from various sources (inversions, dust) and hazardous chemicals (heavy metals, asbestos, pesticides, PFAS) cause deaths and illnesses. The author, a physician, warns of “dramatic increases in numerous diseases and decreases in life expectancy” if the toxic dust from the Great Salt Lake is not addressed.

2. Target 6.3: Improve water quality by reducing pollution

   The article explicitly identifies sources of water pollution affecting the Great Salt Lake. It mentions “Kennecott’s mining operation,” “Mag Corp,” and “28 sewage treatment plants” discharging a host of toxic materials, including heavy metals, dioxins, furans, PCBs, and “forever chemicals” into the lake and its tributaries, directly aligning with the goal of reducing the release of hazardous chemicals into water bodies.

3. Target 6.6: Protect and restore water-related ecosystems

   The primary plea of the article is to prevent the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake, a major water-related ecosystem. The author criticizes plans for further water diversions (e.g., the Bear River Project) that would exacerbate the problem, and advocates for applying the “precautionary principle… to saving Great Salt Lake,” which is a call for its protection and restoration.

4. Target 11.6: Reduce the adverse environmental impact of cities, especially air quality

   The entire piece is a commentary on the poor and worsening air quality in Northern Utah. It describes historical issues like “dense winter inversion” and current threats from “wildfire smoke and ozone” and a “toxic dust bowl.” The concern that the population may have to “pack up and leave simply because the air was no longer safe to breathe” directly addresses the environmental impact on the city and its inhabitants.

5. Target 15.1: Ensure the conservation and restoration of inland freshwater ecosystems

   The article’s focus on the Great Salt Lake as an ecosystem threatened by water diversions and pollution directly relates to this target. The author’s call to action is aimed at preserving this specific inland ecosystem from further degradation caused by human activity.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Mortality and morbidity rates attributed to pollution (Implied for Target 3.9)

   The article implies this indicator by stating that “people died from” air pollution and that other dried lakes led to “dramatic increases in numerous diseases and decreases in life expectancy.” Tracking mortality and illness rates linked to respiratory and toxic-exposure diseases in the Wasatch Front would be a direct measure of progress.

2. Annual mean levels of air pollutants (Implied for Target 11.6)

   The text discusses various forms of air pollution, including particulate matter (“the smallest and therefore most dangerous particles”), ozone, and toxic dust. Although it notes that “standard air quality monitors” may not be fully reliable for lakebed dust, the measurement of ambient air pollutants is the implied indicator for assessing air quality.

3. Concentration of hazardous chemicals in the water and lakebed (Implied for Target 6.3)

   By listing numerous specific pollutants entering the lake—such as “carcinogenic and neurotoxic heavy metals,” “dioxins, furans, and PCBs,” and “‘forever chemicals'”—the article implies that measuring the concentration of these substances in the lake’s water and exposed bed is a key indicator of pollution levels.

4. Water level and surface area of the Great Salt Lake (Implied for Target 6.6)

   The central threat is the lake “disappearing” and becoming an “expanding dry lake.” Therefore, the most direct indicator of progress in protecting this ecosystem would be the measurement of its water levels and total surface area over time, showing a halt or reversal of its decline.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Table

Source: sltrib.com