OpenAQ Recent Conditions in Air Quality

Every day activities such as driving, burning coal for electricity, wildfires, running factories, even cooking and cleaning, release particles into the air. Besides being an irritant, small particles of 10, 2.5, 1 micrometers (PM10, PM2.5, PM1) or less are a health hazard since they can get deep into the respiratory system and damage the delicate tissues.

The exposure of populations to high levels of small particles increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines provide long-term and short-term exposure limits to PM10 and PM2.5:
Long-term: PM10 20 µg/m³ annual mean and PM2.5 10 µg/m³

Short-term: PM10 50 µg/m³ 24-hour mean and PM2.5 25 µg/m³

Exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 above these limits may significantly impact human health.

The OpenAQ Recent Conditions in Air Quality layers show the latest mass concentrations and particulate count for PM2.5, PM10, and PM1 of the stations in the OpenAQ data set with at least one value reported in the past 30 days.

Source: The source information is the OpenAQ community which reports measured concentrations (µg/m³) and particle matter count (particles/cm³) on a global scale by aggregating station data from national networks of air quality.