Two University of Toledo medical researchers leading a first-of-its-kind study into the dangers of airborne algae particles ended a 75-minute dual presentation on Thursday night by encouraging more residents from Lucas, Ottawa, and Sandusky counties to participate as test subjects.

The type of research study being led by Dr. David Kennedy and Dr. Steve Haller, two UT associate professors of medicine, is part of a new frontier of harmful algal bloom science.

“We can’t understand and evaluate what we do not measure, and we cannot understand and evaluate the impact of HABs [harmful algal blooms] on the community without you,” Mr. Haller said.

While excessive nutrients have for years been known as the root cause behind the formation of western Lake Erie blooms each summer, precious little information, comparatively, is known about how toxins within those blooms float up into the air and travel for miles. Even less is known about how frequent inhalation of those particles can hurt our bodies.

That’s where these two UT researchers come in.

Their five-year project, called the Great Lakes Aerosol Monitoring Research Project, aims to track 200 people from Lucas, Ottawa, and Sandusky counties who live, work, or play in the vicinity of Lake Erie.

Participants won’t be subjected to anything more invasive than a needle used to withdraw blood samples.

Participation in that and each of the other individual tests is totally voluntary, anyway. For example, someone may offer to leave a urine sample but decline to have a COVID-style nasal swab go up their nose.

Near the end of their presentation at UT’s Lake Erie Center in Oregon, the two researchers and two nurses from UT’s Mobile Health Unit, a traveling trailer for health screens, gave a quick overview of what’s expected from participants.

Blowing into a chamber-like device is one of the easiest tests.

“We have amazing technology now in which we can store that breath at minus-80 degrees and study what might be going up or down [your lungs],” Mr. Haller said.

To participate, contact Jennifer Gilmore at jennifer.gilmore@utoledo.edu or call 419-383-6761. Also, be on the lookout for the Mobile Health Unit, which will be traveling across those three counties to make signups easier. More information about the study can be found at utoledo.edu/med/research/water/.

The project is being done in collaboration with the University of Michigan and with financial support from the National Institutes of Health.

The study is a key part of a five-year, $6.5 million federal grant to fund the reshaped and expanded Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health, which in 2024 was moved to UM. It was originally anchored at Bowling Green State University.

Those who participate must be 10 years of age or older. They will chosen based on their medical history, and will be asked to perform tests before, during, and after harmful algal bloom seasons, which generally begin in early July and end in late fall.

A UM researcher has previously estimated that airborne algal particles can travel more than 18 miles in the air.

But it is possible they could even travel farther.

Dr. Kennedy acknowledged that tiny soot particles from coal-fired power plants, for example, have been shown to travel hundreds of miles when they’re so light they get drawn up high into the atmosphere before settling.

After Toledo experienced its 2014 water crisis, when an algal toxin made the city’s tap water unsafe for nearly three days, UT’s medical researchers wanted to dig deeper into understanding how airborne algal toxins can impact our bodies when they are inhaled and what happens to people exposed to low levels of them for years.

“It really drove home for us the human health aspects,” Dr. Kennedy said.

Prior studies focused on heavy exposures, such as when humans or animals, such as dogs, accidentally swallowed algae-infested water while swimming and got sick. Though fatalities are rare for humans, they have happened in countries such as Brazil and several dogs in the United States die annually from inadvertent gulps of contaminated water.

The two researchers want to tap into the much lesser-known impacts caused by those who unknowingly breathe in tiny-yet-toxic algae particles.

Dr. Kennedy began his medical overview of toxic algae particles by dispelling the myth that the human liver is the only susceptible organ. That was a common belief during the 2014 water crisis.

“It turns out that almost every single organ is impacted by these,” he said.

Research has shown, though, that those at greatest risk already have an underlying condition, such as diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, fatting liver tissue, or asthma, Dr. Kennedy said.

In many cases, the toxin slips through cellular “doors,” or microscopic pathways within the body, and causes inflammation or other problems to organs.

Because he and Dr. Haller are largely focused on respiratory issues, they are especially watching what happens to participants with asthma who spend a lot of time on or near Lake Erie.

“Lungs are definitely a target,” Dr. Kennedy said. “Cyanotoxins [another word for algal toxins found in harmful blue-green algae] cause inflammation of the lungs.”

Their theory is that asthmatics might be more susceptible to experiencing health impacts from airborne algal toxins.

Much of that research is new, inspired by medical questions after the 2014 water crisis, Dr. Kennedy said.

“The lungs are very susceptible to a particular type of inflammation from microcystins,” he said.

Mr. Haller agreed.

“It’s a really important question because there’s a lot we don’t know about human exposure,” he said.

This year, in preparation for the upcoming HABs season, UT has installed a permanent air monitor at a fixed location near its Lake Erie Center to capture such particles. The university also will be trying to capture them with mobile devices brought out on the lake on its research vessel or to various locations near the shoreline.

“We have a beautiful lake,” Dr. Kennedy said. “It’s a national treasure and people should be able to live, work, and recreate in and around with it and not have to pack up the kids and drive six hours to spend time with their family at a beach.”

Climate change is making algal blooms “more complex and persistent,” he said.

In recent years, scientists have noticed a biological tradeoff between different species of cyanobacteria that have created blooms earlier and allowed them to last longer.

The 2024 bloom set a record for arrival time when it established itself on June 24.

The 2022 bloom was the first to linger deep into November. It hung around so long it outlasted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s seasonal monitoring program that year.

“The window of exposure for folks is getting longer and it’s also getting more complex,” Dr. Kennedy said.

Those in the audience included Dr. Joan Duggan, an infectious disease specialist at UT who is assisting with the aerosol study.

Dr. Haller said the outcome of the research study “is personal for us, too, because we grew up in this community, we care about this community and we have a responsibility to provide answers for the community.”

“That’s important to us personally, and the University of Toledo has a responsibility to do that,” he said.

First Published March 28, 2025, 9:06 p.m.