particulate

Since 2018, the Salton Sea no longer gets an inflow of fresh water, only agricultural runoff, so it is evaporating and shrinking while the exposed, dry lake bed area is expanding, feeding clouds of particulate.

Wildfire smoke has been found to be harmful to certain immune cells in the lungs, with a toxicity four times greater than particulates from other types of pollution.

At the second Intas factory, inspectors said in their report that records were “routinely manipulated” to cover up the presence of particulate matter — which could include glass, fiber or other contaminants — in the company’s drugs.

Studies have found that particulate pollution known as PM 2.5, which is released by vehicles, industrial smokestacks and wildfires, can be attributed to as many as 200,000 excess deaths each year.

Firefighters also typically face prolonged exposure to the particulate matter in smoke when fighting wildfires in rural areas — but not the chemicals of an urban setting.