The sale of particle counters will witness an upward spike considering the uncontrolled wild forest fire in Fort McMurry, Alberta in Canada. Huge tracts of forests are causing untold havoc as more than 100,000 residents have been evacuated as their homes have been consumed in the advancing fire. There is a danger that oil facilities in Alberta which are in the path of the fire is in danger. It is predicted that the wind will take the smoke and debris in the air as far as Florida.
The only way to monitor the air quality is employing particle counters in determining the state of the air for health as well as environmental hygiene is concerned. Particle sizes from 0.1 to 100 micrometers can be detected.
A particle counter counts the number of particles. The methodologies used are by
1. Light scattering (for smaller sized particles)
2. Light blocking
3. Direct Imaging
1. Light scattering: the amount of light that is redirected by a particle when subjected to a light passing through it in a given area. The redirection is called light scattering. This technique is also utilized in monitoring ultra pure water in semiconductor fabrication.
2. Light blocking method is used to find contaminants in hydraulic fluid.
3. Direct imaging technique is used in detecting particles when a cell is illuminated by laser where particles are passing the cell.
A typical particle counter use is maintaining a clean room; continuous monitoring by an array of sensors and connected to a remote facility monitoring system with programmable logic controllers can immediately signal when the air quality of the given area crosses a predetermined threshold. Hand held particle counters are being increasingly used in monitoring indoor office and school environments that are stressed. They are going to be particularly useful in North America at the present time.
