Air Quality Bureau Posts New Fine Particle Reduction Web Pages

What Iowans can do to help reduce the state’s background levels of fine particles in the ambient air is the focus of a new web page posted on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources web site at:

www.iowacleanair.com/prof/progdev/pm25na.html

Recently the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposal to declare Scott and Muscatine counties in nonattainment for particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5). This came following the December 18, 2006 tightening of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5 from 65 to 35 micrometers per cubic meter of air. The ambient air concentrations in the monitored locations from 2005-2007 were 37 and 36 respectively. Other monitored locations in Iowa are just under the new standard.

“All Iowans can help reduce the amount of fine particles in the background ambient air,” said Air Quality Bureau Chief Catharine Fitzsimmons. “This web site, which will be continually updated and expanded, offers measures and strategies that individuals, local organizations, and business and industry can do to help reduce PM2.5 concentrations locally and for neighbors living downwind.”

Sources of fine particle pollution include all types of combustion (motor vehicles, power plants, wood burning, etc.) and some industrial processes. The small size of PM2.5 allows it to easily bypass the human body’s respiratory defenses and become lodged deep within the lungs. As fine particulate levels rise, people with lung or heart disease, as well as the elderly and children, are the first to experience symptoms. Elevated fine particle levels can also aggravate asthma and decrease lung function. The U. S. EPA tightened the standard because people are impacted at lower levels than originally believed.