Particulate matter (PM), sometimes referred to as “particulate pollution” is made up of tiny, unseen pieces of organic, but mostly inorganic solids or liquids that remain suspended in indoor and outdoor air for hours, days, weeks, and even longer, and can be viewed through an electron microscope. When large numbers of PM, such as dust, are present in a room with windows and sunlight streaming through, this collection of PM may appear as a hazy cloud.
PM’s size starts at PM 10 or 10μm (microns) in diameter for the largest, down to 0.1μm in diameter. PM at 2.5μm and below, even including submicron sizes, are considered the most dangerous particulates since they’re invasive capabilities can easily penetrate the upper regions of the human lungs and beyond, even to the heart and brain. We will discuss later in our series on PM the consequences and dangers this penetration can cause. For now, it is important to note that PM itself can cause health issues, especially in the respiratory tract, but can also transport many dangerous and much smaller-sized bacteria and viruses as well. Generally speaking, the smaller in size the PM is, the deeper it can penetrate into the body.
PM not only comes in varying sizes and irregular shapes, but has various denseness and weights. This directly impacts how quickly individual particles settle to the surface. The first level to receive the PM will be flat surfaces higher up in an indoor room with heavier, larger-sized PM such as pollens being the first to make surface contact.
It is important to note that most research on PM movement indoors is predicated on the room being sealed without agitated air coming from people and/or equipment. Whenever you introduce people, AC units, fans, and dryers to the room activity, it will extend significantly the time element PM will remain suspended in the air, as well as stirring up additional settled PM that may have initially landed on a flat surface.
Day after day, as activity is renewed, the salon’s newly-created PM will be added to portions of the previous day’s PM debris unless an indoor solution is found to clean and remove the unhealthy PM buildup.
Experience has shown that commercial air purifiers should not be routinely run only during work hours, but periodic, overnight cleansing evolutions for air purification should be scheduled to agitate settled PM, thereby creating a “Cleansed Air Environment.”
Full-room surface agitation at least monthly to prevent hidden PM that does not again merge with the room’s breathable air is achievable. The comparative size of PM released into a grooming salon airspace at 10μm, the largest PM size, makes the human hair, at 70μm 30x larger in size than PM10.
Another size reference as to how really small PM 10 is, would be the comparison in size to fine beach sand with measurement at 90μm and is important as sand particles are at times used when sizing comparisons are made for bacteria, virus, and fungi such as:
10 – Skin Cells could line up along the side of the a sand particle
100 – Bacteria could line up along the side of the a sand particle
1,000 – Virus could line up along the side of the a sand particle
The capability of particulate matter to transport harmful microbes in significant numbers presents a challenge to human health that should not be ignored. Capture the carrier and reduce the threat should be a grooming salon’s goal.
We must now attempt to answer how PM is formed. Scientific studies around the world are numerous when examining the formation of particulate matter outdoors, and except for less than thorough attempts at medical contaminate research, indoor PM has gotten little attention or focus concerning work environments most deserving the most attention such as grooming salons.
Till Next Time,
-The Professor