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International Journal of Earth & Environmental Sciences Volume 2 (2017), Article ID 2:IJEES-144, 4 pages
https://doi.org/10.15344/2456-351X/2017/144
Mini Review
Particulate Matter Monitoring: Past, Present and Future

Luigi G. Occhipinti* and Pelumi W. Oluwasanya

Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK
Prof. Luigi G. Occhipintia, Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge Department of Engineering, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK; E-mail: lgo23@cam.ac.uk
23 October 2017; 30 November 2017; 01 December 2017
Occhipinti LG, Oluwasanya PW (2017) Particulate Matter Monitoring: Past, Present and Future. Int J Earth Environ Sci 2: 144. doi: https://doi.org/10.15344/2456-351X/2017/144

Abstract

The health problems caused by exposure to airborne Particulate Matter (PM) beyond safe limits have been studied for many years. Government regulatory agencies have adapted and updated the safe exposure limits as more progress is made both in policy developments and detection system design. Bulky PM detectors, though very accurate do not provide sufficient spatial and temporal resolution, and are static and expensive. Current much smaller commercial PM sensors are mobile but still mostly too expensive and largely still too big for real-time continuous personal use. They also must be calibrated to convert their counts to mass concentration despite their variation from unit to unit. The continuous drive towards having a cheaper, smaller, yet more effective PM sensors for personal exposure analysis and indoor environments is pushing the current boundaries of current techniques. Emerging PM sensing techniques must now achieve this, while also linking to other structured source apportionment and semantic analysis of air quality data aimed at providing useful information about user activities mostly provided via the internet. This review highlights research on PM detection and monitoring, covering methods and principle of operation of detection instruments, emerging trends and future outlooks. Further, this work reviews PM detection challenges, measurement interpretation and possible solutions going forward.