Abstract
Particulate matter (PM) air pollution is the most complex pollutant of the six pollutants regulated by the US EPA as “criteria” air pollutants. Particulate matter is all the dust, smoke, and haze particles suspended in ambient air as described in Chapter 4. The reader is referred back to Figure 4-4a and Figure 4-4b to review the distributions of atmospheric particles by size. Chapter 4 also lists common sources of PM. Briefly, as described in chapter 4, there are basically two types of sources of PM: a so called “coarse fraction” and a finer fraction. The coarse fraction is made up of natural aerosolization of crustal matter such as during a wind blown dust storm, during agricultural practices, and during excavations for construction, whereas the source of the finer fraction is mainly combustion including gasoline and diesel fuel vehicle combustion, industry combustion, coal combustion in the process of electricity generation, and burning of vegetative material such as wood burning for residential heating and grass burning for clearing agricultural land. The size of PM also is expressed as the difference between the coarse and the fine mode (PM10.2 5or PMcF). The smallest particles in air are the ultrafine particles that are emitted from combustion and are generally smaller than a few hundred nanograms.
Published Version
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