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A new interdisciplinary study published in The Lancet Planetary Health finds that declining water levels in Utah’s Great Salt Lake are associated with worsening air quality and higher prevalence of major depressive episodes in surrounding communities.
The NASA-funded research, led by Dr Maheshwari Neelam at the Universities Space Research Association’s (USRA) Science and Technology Institute in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, shows that a combination of long-term water diversion, overconsumption, and changing environmental conditions has reduced lake levels and exposed large areas of lakebed. These exposed surfaces act as a source of fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅), which is transported into nearby population centres.
The study identifies a new linked sequence of processes: declining lake levels expose sediments, wind-driven dust increases air pollution, and repeated exposure to elevated PM₂.₅, which was associated with higher depression levels, based on data from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.