FINE DUST AS A PATHOGEN

In today’s day and age, a person spends, on an average, 90% of his time in closed spaces. 65% of this time is spent at home itself. Protecting health from PM2.5 fine dust is becoming more and more important since more than 70% of the population works indoors in offices. Here, the problem is that people are more susceptible to PM2.5 fine dust in indoor areas. Known main sources of fine dust in outdoor areas are smoke and exhaust fumes.

Another source for air pollution in indoor areas is the fine dust that enters closed spaces from open windows and settles inside.

Germany, UK, France, US, Japan and other countries started researching on the hazards of air pollution in indoor spaces and their effects on human health from the 1970s. These countries discovered more than 500 types of poisonous and hazardous materials in the ambient air and more than 20 types were classified as carcinogenic.

WHO reported that 70% of all human diseases are caused due to impure ambient air. 30% of the people living in apartments and new buildings may suffer from Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), i.e. headache, dizziness and fatigue.

Since people, on an average, spend 90% of their time indoors, indoor air pollution is a lot more than outer air pollution in modern cities. Quality of the ambient air is thus gaining increasing amount of importance from the point of view of human health.*

WHAT IS PARTICULATE MATTER 2.5 / FINE DUST PM2.5?

Atmospheric fine dust PM2.5 has a diameter of less than 2.5 micron particle. Its diameter is 1/20 times that of human hair. Although the fine dust PM2.5 levels contain only a few components from the atmosphere of the Earth, these particles have a considerable effect on the quality of air. If we compare the atmospheric particles with those of fine dust PM 2.5, we notice that the size of the PM2.5 particle is smaller, they have greater accumulation of poisonous and hazardous substances and the retention time in the atmosphere is more. Fine dust PM 2.5 thus has a greater influence on human health and on the quality of the atmospheric environment. In February 2012, a newly revised “Emission limit” was agreed upon to increase the PM2.5 monitoring.

HAZARDS OF PM 2.5

In its issue of “Air Quality Guidelines” in 2005, this is what WHO had to say: For an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 35 microgram per cubic meter, the risk of death for a person increases to about 15% as compared to a case with 10 microgram per cubic meter. A report of the United Nations Environment Program explains that an increase in the concentration of 20 mg PM 2.5 per cubic meter will cause about 34 million deaths every year in China and India.*