What Is Particulate Matter?
Particulate matter – often written as PM - is made up of tiny pieces of dust, dirt, soot, smoke, droplets of liquid and other pollutants. Sometimes you can see the fine particles, but other times they can only be seen with a microscope. Particulate matter is categorized based on size. Larger particulate matter is called PM10 and much finer particulate matter is called PM2.5. PM2.5 is most harmful to your health.
Sources of Particulate Matter
Particulate matter can come from a variety of sources, including:
- Cooking: activities like broiling, frying, grilling, or using gas stoves
- Combustion Activities: smoking tobacco, burning candles or incense, and using fireplaces, oil furnaces, and fuel-burning space heaters
- Household Products: some cleaning products, air fresheners, oil diffusers, and aerosol sprays
- Hobbies: woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing, making stained glass, and activities including glues and adhesives
- Biological Sources: mold spores, dust mites, cockroaches
- Outdoor air: vehicle exhaust, wildfire smoke, campfires, road dust, pollen, mining operations, agricultural activities, and factory emissions. Outdoor particulate matter, also known as particle pollution, can enter buildings through windows, doors, ventilation systems, and small cracks and crevices.
How Particulate Matter Impacts Health
When particles from the air travel deep into your body, they can have a negative impact on your health. PM2.5 is so small they go into the lungs all the way to the air sacs called alveoli. Once there, they can irritate and corrode the alveoli wall, damaging the lungs and causing lung disease. Particulate matter found in the air can make existing lung diseases, like asthma and COPD worse, as well as cause pneumonia, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
Watch How Indoor Air Quality Impacts Your Lungs to learn more.
The burden of polluted air is not equally shared.
How to Protect Against Particulate Matter
There are several ways to reduce particulate matter and improve the air quality indoors. The first step is to always identify and remove the source of the pollutant, also known as source control.
Page last updated: November 2, 2023
