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diseases, and COPD during high dust events are increased by 0.7 case (35%), 0.7 case (20%), and 0.9 case (20%) per event, respectively, dust storms, which are originated mostly from Sahara in winter and spring seasons and Sahel in summer and autumn seasons, are routinely carried up the Mediterra-western coast of North America (Duce et al., 1980; Husar et al., 2001). Previous studies reported that dust in the storms was transported to the oceans and contributed ARTICLE IN PRESSsignificantly to deep-sea sediments (Duce et al., 1980; Moulin et al., 1997). A few studies also showed that dust storms from the Sahara could spread fungi or bacteria an