The most common lung diseases in El Paso include asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Meanwhile, rising temperatures from human-caused climate change means El Paso\u2019s growing season has gotten longer<\/a>, prolonging the period when flowering plants release allergens.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEl Paso is a difficult place to be for people with chronic lung illness,\u201d said pulmonologist Dr. Kevin Rowley. \u201cNot least of all the wind and dust, which is not uncommon here, but I\u2019ve had patients who could never really get their breathing well-controlled and well-treated and would give up and move somewhere else to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a belief that living in a desert is good for some lung diseases,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in my experience, El Paso seems to bely that belief.\u201d<\/p>\n Dust events can reveal undiagnosed lung problems<\/p>\n A University of California, Merced study looking at dust events recorded from 2010 through 2014 in El Paso found the number of hospitalizations in El Paso are five times higher after a dust event<\/a> than before it.<\/p>\n Rowley said the duration someone is exposed to dust or particulate pollution matters.<\/p>\n While a brief period of exposure probably doesn\u2019t have a significant association with chronic lung problems, it can unmask previously undiagnosed lung problems or exacerbate current ones. Asthma is more frequently diagnosed in adolescence, but it can also develop over time and not get diagnosed in people until their later adult years, Rowley said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon for someone to come in, never had lung problems before, but then they get caught in a dusty day and their breathing goes out on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More than 16,000 children and 54,000 adults in El Paso have asthma, according to the American Lung Association. More than 31,000 people in El Paso have COPD caused by long-term exposure to lung irritants, such as smoke and air pollution.<\/p>\n Corina Burciaga raises her two children, 12-year-old Andres and 7-year-old Caroline, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just outside El Paso. Both of her children suffered asthma attacks through an abnormally high number of dust storms last year \u2013 the most storms since the 1930s Dust Bowl.<\/p>\n Andres and Caroline use a daily inhaler and have albuterol as an emergency inhaler for bouts of wheezing or shortness of breath. Their asthma flared up on the days when powerful gusts of wind and sand ripped through the region. Burciaga remembered the calls she received from her children\u2019s schools informing her their albuterol wasn\u2019t helping and they couldn\u2019t control their coughing.<\/p>\n Her children had to take a course of steroids and miss school for a couple days until they got their asthma under control, she said. This spring has been quieter so far, but Burciaga said she began bracing herself after Caroline complained of throat irritation during a dust event in February.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband and I have thought about moving to Ruidoso to help them because it\u2019s getting worse,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen it get this bad for them.\u201d<\/p>\n People with underlying health conditions or weaker immune systems, such as children and elderly people, are at higher risk for illness and infection from dust exposure, said Dr. James Tarbox, chief of allergy and immunology for Texas Tech Physicians.<\/p>\n They have the possibility of contracting pneumonia, and in rare cases, need treatment in the intensive care unit for haboob lung syndrome, a severe and acute respiratory illness caused by inhaling high concentrations of dust, Tarbox said. For those with cardiovascular disease, there is a higher rate of heart attack, stroke and heart failure.<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the dust itself can also irritate the lungs, from heavy metals to the Valley fever-causing fungus that thrives in low rainfall and high temperatures.<\/p>\n Valley fever surveillance remains lacking in Texas<\/p>\n Valley fever is endemic to a region stretching from California through West Texas. Despite its presence in Texas, the state health department does not require medical care providers to report coccidioidomycosis cases. El Paso County is the only county in Texas that reports cases.<\/p>\n Most people who catch Valley fever experience no symptoms or mild symptoms that resolve on their own. But lack of awareness can lead to severe cases that go untreated for too long<\/a> and turn into serious, chronic complications.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_5854.jpg\")
A dust storm, one of several that week, obscures a school as it swept through El Paso and parts of southern New Mexico on March 6, 2025. (Claudia Silva \/ El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CorinaBurciaga-2.jpg\")
Sunland Park mother, Corina Burciaga, said her two children experienced asthma attacks and had to miss school during the intense dust events of 2025. (Courtesy of Corina Burciaga)<\/p>\n![\"visualization\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773667030_386_thumbnail.jpeg\")
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