Respiratory dust - a health problem
What is respiratory dust?
Respiratory dust consists of tiny particles with a diameter of less than a 10 thousandth of a millimeter, which is around a tenth of the diameter of a human hair. The particles, also described as PM10 are largely released by burning processes. Industry, transport and heating are mainly responsible for producing them. Due to their small size and chemical composition they are dangerous for our health. The respiratory dust particles permeate deep into our lungs and cause various illnesses starting with chronic coughing and ending with lung cancer. Just imagine: in strongly exposed areas people could consume up to 50 million particles in each breath!
Late recognition
The problem of respiratory dust particles in the atmosphere is nothing new, but people have only known about its effects on health for a few years. The places which are most affected are urban areas with high population and lots of traffic and regions where the topography and climate encourage the collection of particles in the atmosphere.
Consistent exceedance of boundaries
The European Union and Switzerland have specified limits for the PM10 concentration in our atmosphere: the limit for the annual average is 20 µg/m3 in Switzerland and 40 µg/m3 in the EU. Additionally the daily limit of 50 µg/m3 may only be exceeded once, or 35 times in the EU. Unfortunately these limits, as many measurements confirm, are consistently exceeded and so for example a good 40% of the population of Switzerland regularly inhale too much health damaging respiratory dust
Example: In Zurich the permitted daily limit of 50 µg/m3 was exceeded 24 times in the first one and a half months of 2006. Only one exceedance of this limit was permitted per year.
Even wood fires contribute to the respiratory dust problem
Even wood fires release respiratory dust particles. In the total balance they do not represent the most important cause of our respiratory dust problem, but in areas with large numbers of old sites and due to misbehaviour on the part of the operators, the particle emissions from such systems can also influence the local PM10 load during cold times of year.
A large part of respiratory dust is produced by diesel motors. Wood fires also emit respiratory dust, especially when they are not correctly operated.
