(upbeat music) - PBS Utah and the Utah Cultural Celebration Center are hosting a public screening and discussion on the urgent health impacts of toxic dust from the drying Great Salt Lake.

"Utah Insight's" Lauren Steinbrecher is here with more.

Hi, Lauren.

Thanks so much for being here.

So, tell us a little why it is so urgent right now.

- It's so urgent because, as the lake levels are continuing to drop, researchers at the University of Utah are finding that there is dust blowing up from the Great Salt Lake.

And I would bet a lot of people in the Salt Lake Valley and even down to Utah County have seen it when we've get those high winds, and then you're wondering, "Okay, it's hitting me.

What's in it and how is it impacting me?"

- And that's exactly what I wonder every time I go for a walk during a windstorm.

So, I know you've talked to a lot of experts for a piece you're doing.

Tell us a bit about the piece that people will see that night.

- Yeah, so we dive into some of the new research that is coming out of the University of Utah.

We go out to the middle of the playa where water should be, where it's not anymore.

We're up here on campus looking through data and all of that.

We also talked to the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, as they're looking at new ways to maybe help mitigate the situation and get more water into the lake.

So, looking at a lot of different things.

- Yeah, and I know that night you're going to have resources for people and some experts there.

Who are a couple of the experts?

- Yeah, so we're going to have a panel, including one of the researchers from the piece so we can really dive deeper into that topic.

We will have resources there of what people can do in their own homes, how they can really take control of their health as we all work to kind of answer, how do we mitigate this dust?

- Ah, this is so important you're doing this.

I mean, I appreciate you doing it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

And kind of like who is most impacted?

- So, what these researchers are finding is that there are communities of people who are most impacted, particularly if you're living kind of the northwest or west side, even out toward Tooele, Grantsville.

They really are finding that those people are more impacted, and they're coming up with models so that they can tell, depending on what the lake levels are, how much dust is kicking up and where would it even be going.

- Okay, well, thank you so much for doing it, and thanks for being here.

Thank you.

- Yeah.

- And if you'd like to know more about that upcoming event, it's the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, September 9th, from 6 to 8.

Go to pbsutah.org/events.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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