About dust

Why dust? And why do we deal with this, is it our business to deal with this? Of course, since the environment in which we live in determine our duty and we feel obligatory to discuss this matter. Did you think about where Europe stands in this territory? Did you know that in Bucharest, the capital city, dust density is the highest of all the European capitals ?

Just an ordinary day, source: ProTV News

The main sources of dust are vehicles and, in some cases, dust density is also increased by particles of overused tires, or the dust coming from the driveways. In terms of annual average daily traffic for 2000, in Brasov (a bigger city near our town) a total of 971 vehicles/ day were registered on county roads and 597 vehicles / day on common roads which means a huge number in comparison with the population of Brasov.

Critically air polluted counties in Romania, source: gândul.info

In fact, the traffic is one of the main reasons why Romania’s calculated average exceeds the normal European limit, which is 40 micrograms/m3, by 3.1 micrograms/m3. Not to mention that dust density is also influenced by the weather, which means that in summer the pollution level is about 20- 30 times higher than in winter, according to some recent research by the Brasov Metropolitan Agency and the Brasov City Hall. Moreover, the amount of dust in Bucharest is over ten times higher than in other European capitals, it reaches approximately 280 tones/ km2.

      

Particulate Matter (PM) in the air of Europe, a forecast for 2020

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health, to the inhaled dust particles bacteria, viruses, fungus spores, and other toxic substances are often added. Dust particles may cause damage to the alveoli. Possible health effects are: eye conjunctivitis, irritation of the upper respiratory tract’s mucous membranes; it may cause coughing, difficulties in breathing and other diseases (for e.g. lung silicosis), after it is absorbed by the lungs. According to the National Network of Air Quality Measurement, asthma, chronic bronchitis along with cardiovascular morbidity is a more and more frequent reason for seeing a doctor. Dust might also harm computer electronics and its associated electromechanical components irreversibly. A normal PC is not designed to be tolerant of high density of dust so steps are required to mitigate such conditions.