Bulldust or bull dust is a fine, soft and powdery red aeolian dust that is common across Australia, especially in the Outback [1] and desert. Bulldust is a type of fugitive dust that when disturbed can have dangerous effects. Bulldust is common on remote roads, especially in the far north of Australia where the wet and dry season can cause the roads to either be boggy or very dry. Bulldust is also an Australian colloquial term and euphemism. Both meanings of the term originated in the 1920s. [2]
Most soils in Australia have no structure, and their surface often contains medium to high amounts of fine sand. Because of the lack of structure when compressed or disturbed, bulldust will form. [3] These disturbances can be anything that breaks up the track surface, such as a car or vehicle driving along a road, or a pack of animals such as camels running through the desert. [4] Once the road surface has been disturbed, the bulldust particles released into the air can remain suspended for up to several minutes. The dust will then resettle on the road surface, vegetation, and passing cars or vehicles. [5] This can occur in dry areas such as the Outback, arid Australia, or when there has been an extended dry season in a normally damper area. [6]
Bulldust can be identified when driving, by the softness of the road; it is visually similar to that of soft sand. From a distance, bulldust may appear to be settled, but once disturbed it billows up to form a dust cloud. The road has noticeable soft bumps and slumps caused by tyre tracks; the road surface resembles soft waves, which are caused by wheel ruts which have left depressions in the sand-like surface. [7] Bulldust can range in intensity, from shallow slumps which range between a few centimetres deep with soft dusty edges, to more dangerous slumps ranging over 30 centimetres with a rock-hard edge. [6]
Bulldust can be problematic for people who drive through it, especially people with respiratory illnesses, sometimes causing coughing and sneezing, as well as damage to a car and impairing the ability to drive. In extreme cases, temporary loss of vision can cause car accidents such as rollovers, or can cause someone to hit vegetation or an animal such as a kangaroo, which can significantly damage a car and kill the animal. A bulldust hole can also significantly damage a car if the necessary precautions are not taken. [8] Bulldust can cause a variety of other issues for those who are conducting engineering explorations and for farmers, as the dust can ruin crops, damage equipment, and, due to its unstable nature on roads, cause issues for transportation. [9]
When driving, bulldust billows up into a cloud behind a car and can have a range of effects on a car and a person's ability to drive, depending on the intensity of the dust. As bulldust is a fine and powdery substance, it can cause difficulties in keeping control of the vehicle and can cause skidding, which can lead to accidents. The fine dust can also damage a car's engine, especially through the engine's air intake system. [4] A cloud of bulldust can impair a driver's vision and conceal road hazards such as potholes, animals, trees and other vehicles. [10] The effects of driving through bulldust can include a burst tyre, getting bogged, a bent rim or suspension damage. [11] [12] In wet conditions, bulldust becomes compact and causes the surface to be slippery and slimy, which can be dangerous. [13]
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Controlling bulldust is not possible, but its effect on drivers and their ability to drive can be mitigated. There are prevention measures that can be undertaken to protect a car and a person's health and safety:
Bulldust also poses a problem for the mining industry, who have developed their own solutions to control the dust. Regulation of bulldust involves regular watering-down of the surface, and application of a chemical onto the road surface that hardens the road and suppresses the dust. Chemicals used include Zero, RT8, Shield AWR, Magnet and DustWorx. The chemical Zero is a synthetic organic that binds dust to the road without need of watering for approximately a year. RT8 is a natural biodegradable oil that coats the particles and binds them into place. Shield AWR is another natural liquid made of nanopolymers that works similarly to the other chemicals by binding the dust particle onto the road surface; however it can only work effectively on maintained roads, so cannot be applied to typical unmaintained rural roads where bulldust is omnipresent. Magnet is a chloride chemical that uses the moisture in the atmosphere to prevent dust from moving on the road; however this is typically less effective. DustWorx is a concentrated polymer that works to prevent dust particles from forming at the surface. These chemicals are all environmentally safe. [17]
Bulldust is colloquial term used as a euphemism for "bullshit", meaning nonsense or rubbish; that someone is lying. [18] The slang term has also been in use in South Africa since the 1920s. [19]
A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which the wheel travels. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, which also provide a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface. Tires provide a footprint, called a contact patch, that is designed to match the weight of the vehicle with the bearing strength of the surface that it rolls over by providing a bearing pressure that will not deform the surface excessively.
Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of atmospheric particulates that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes is composed of about 20–50% dead skin cells. The rest, and in offices, and other human environments is composed of small amounts of plant pollen, human hairs, animal fur, textile fibers, paper fibers, minerals from outdoor soil, burnt meteorite particles, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment.
Understeer and oversteer are vehicle dynamics terms used to describe the sensitivity of a vehicle to steering. Oversteer is what occurs when a car turns (steers) by more than the amount commanded by the driver. Conversely, understeer is what occurs when a car steers less than the amount commanded by the driver.
An off-road vehicle (ORV), sometimes referred to as an off-highway vehicle (OHV), overland vehicle, or adventure vehicle, is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving off paved or gravel surfaces, such as trails and forest roads that have rough and low traction surfaces.
Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, dirt, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicles to competitions with customized vehicles and professional drivers.
A hoon is an Australian and New Zealander term describing a person who deliberately drives a vehicle in a reckless or dangerous manner, generally in order to provoke a reaction from onlookers.
A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, and other Commonwealth countries, they may be known as metal roads. They may be referred to as "dirt roads" in common speech, but that term is used more for unimproved roads with no surface material added. If well constructed and maintained, a gravel road is an all-weather road.
Plus sizing is the practice of replacing an automotive wheel with one of a larger diameter fitted with a new tire of lower aspect ratio so that the new tire has close to the same diameter and circumference as the original tire to minimize any changes in speedometer accuracy, torque and traction control, while reducing sidewall flex and (generally) increasing cornering ability.
The Plenty Highway is a 498-kilometre (309 mi) outback mostly unsealed road in the Northern Territory of Australia between the Stuart Highway and north-western Queensland.
A flat tire is a deflated pneumatic tire, which can cause the rim of the wheel to ride on the tire tread or the ground potentially resulting in loss of control of the vehicle or irreparable damage to the tire. The most common cause of a flat tire is puncturing of the tire by a sharp object, such as a nail or pin, letting the air escape. Depending on the size of the puncture, the tire may deflate slowly or rapidly.
Lunar soil is the fine fraction of lunar regolith found on the surface of the Moon and contributes to the Moon's tenuous atmosphere. Lunar soil differs in its origin and properties significantly from terrestrial soil.
Snow tires, also known as winter tires, are tires designed for use on snow and ice. Snow tires have a tread design with larger gaps than those on conventional tires, increasing traction on snow and ice. Such tires that have passed a specific winter traction performance test are entitled to display a 3PMSF symbol on their sidewalls. Tires designed for winter conditions are optimized to drive at temperatures below 7 °C (45 °F). Studded tires are a type of snow tires which have metal or ceramic studs that protrude from the tire to increase traction on hard-packed snow or ice. Studs abrade dry pavement, causing dust and creating wear in the wheel path. Regulations that require the use of snow tires or permit the use of studs vary by country in Asia and Europe, and by state or province in North America.
A dust explosion is the rapid combustion of fine particles suspended in the air within an enclosed location. Dust explosions can occur where any dispersed powdered combustible material is present in high-enough concentrations in the atmosphere or other oxidizing gaseous medium, such as pure oxygen. In cases when fuel plays the role of a combustible material, the explosion is known as a fuel-air explosion.
Loose chippings are loose gravel or stone fragments on a road surface and form a hazard to vehicles using that road. It may come from the road's chip seal. Causes include:
Road debris, a form of road hazard, is debris on or off a road. Road debris includes substances, materials, and objects that are foreign to the normal roadway environment. Debris may be produced by vehicular or non-vehicular sources, but in all cases it is considered litter, a form of solid waste. Debris may tend to collect in areas where vehicles do not drive, such as on the edges (shoulder), around traffic islands, and junctions.
The Donohue Highway is a 249 km (155 mi) mostly unpaved outback track that leads through the northern foothills of the Simpson Desert in Queensland to Tobermorey Homestead, Northern Territory near the Northern Territory/Queensland border in Australia.
Fugitive dust is an environmental air quality term for very small particles suspended in the air, primarily mineral dust that is sourced from the soil of Earth's pedosphere. A significant volume of fugitive dust that is visible from a distance is known as a dust cloud, and a large dust cloud driven by a gust front is known as a dust storm.
Rubber pollution, similar to plastic pollution, occurs in various environments, and originates from a variety of sources, ranging from the food industry processing chain to tire wear. Synthetic and natural rubber dust and fragments now occur in food, airborne as particulates in air pollution, hidden in the earth as soil pollution, and in waterways, lakes and the sea.
Non-exhaust emissions come from wearing down motor vehicle brake pads, tires, roads themselves, and unsettling of particles on the road. This particulate matter is made up of micrometre-sized particles and causes negative health effects, including respiratory disease and cancer. Very fine particulate matter has been linked to cardiovascular disease. Multiple epidemiological studies have demonstrates that particulate matter exposure is associated with acute respiratory infections, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Researchers have also found correlations between exposure to fine particulate matter and fatality rates in previous coronavirus epidemics.
Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) is an official committee of scientific advisers who provide independent advice on air pollutants to the UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The group is drawn mostly from academia and consists of about a dozen atmospheric chemists and other environmental scientists. AQEG also advises government officials and ministers on air quality issues, suggests priority areas for future work, and advises on changes in international policy. AQEG was created in 2001, consolidating the work of a number of previous advisory groups including the Quality of Urban Air Review Group, Airborne Particles Expert Group, and Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards.