Particulate pollution is pollution of an environment that consists of particles suspended in some medium. There are three primary forms: atmospheric particulate matter, marine debris, and space debris. Some particles are released directly from a specific source, while others form in chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Particulate pollution can be derived from either natural sources or anthropogenic processes.
Atmospheric particulate matter
Atmospheric particulate matter, also known as particulate matter, or PM, describes solids and/or liquid particles suspended in a gas, most commonly the Earth's atmosphere. Particles in the atmosphere can be divided into two types, depending on the way they are emitted. Primary particles, such as mineral dust, are emitted into the atmosphere. Secondary particles, such as ammonium nitrate, are formed in the atmosphere through gas-to-particle conversion.
Sources
Some particulates occur naturally, originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation and sea spray. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, wood burning, stubble burning, power plants, road dust, wet cooling towers in cooling systems and various industrial processes, also generate significant amounts of particulates. Coal combustion in developing countries is the primary method for heating homes and supplying energy. Because salt spray over the oceans is the overwhelmingly most common form of particulate in the atmosphere, anthropogenic aerosols—those made by human activities—currently account for about 10 percent of the total mass of aerosols in our atmosphere.
Domestic combustion and wood smoke
Domestic combustion pollution is mainly composed of burning fuel including wood, gas, and charcoal in activities of heating, cooking, agriculture, and wildfires. Major domestic pollutants contain 17% of carbon dioxide, 13% of carbon monoxide, 6% of nitrogen monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and fine and ultrafine particles.
In the United Kingdom domestic combustion is the largest single source of PM2.5 annually. In some towns and cities in New South Wales wood smoke may be responsible for 60% of fine particle air pollution in the winter. Research conducted about biomass burning in 2015, estimated that 38% of European total particulate pollution emissions are composed of domestic wood burning.
The particulate pollutant is often in microscopic size that enables it to infiltrate into interior space even if windows and doors are closed. The main component of woodsmoke, black carbon significantly appears in the indoor environment compared to other ambient pollutants. If the room is sealed tight enough to prevent woodsmoke transmission, it will also prevent oxygen exchange from indoors to outdoor. The regular dusk mask also can help little with particulate pollutants since they are designed to filter out larger particles. Musk with HEPA filter can filter out microscopic pollutants but cause difficulty of breathing to the population with lung disease.
Living under high concentrations of pollutants can lead to headaches, fatigue, lung disease, asthma, and throat and eye irritation. One of the most common diseases among those living among pollutants is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Exposure to wood and charcoal smoke is significantly associated with COPD diagnoses among those living in developing and developed countries. Exposure to woodsmoke intensifies the respiratory systems and increases the risk of hospital admissions.