The importance of particle detectors in present day environment is becoming more due to increased pollution. Cities are reporting higher readings of hazardous hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. Example of Beijing shutting down during Dec 2015 is a first for any city in the world. In Jan 2016, Beijing announced closing down more than 2500 polluting industrial firms for smog that is engulfing China's capital.
Another example of New Delhi the capital city of India has tried out for two week odd and even numbered traffic policy for vehicles. The level of pollution in New Delhi has reached alarming proportions. The policies by the respective governments are based on measurements read by particle counters.Numerous study papers have correlated association between cardio-respiratory issues and air quality in Beijing urban areas. [Ref: Health effects of particle pollution in Beijing, China (ongoing)].
Particle counters are standard and mandatory test instruments on space missions. For example, Cassini (launched in 2004) is presently orbiting Saturn. The spacecraft is maneuvering closer to Saturn's poles to study the gravity and magnetic fields. On board Cassini is a particle detector that will sample icy ring (of Saturn's) particles that is being pulled into the atmosphere of Saturn. All space missions to Mars have particle detectors and there are teams in NASA and other space organizations studying this data. An interested entrepreneur is Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX, Tesla and Gigabit Solar) whose life's mission is to set up a colony on Mars.
From the brief description in the above paragraphs, we can conclude that it will only get worse. It will not be surprising in the next five years to see particle detectors as fixtures in EV (electric vehicles) that will analyze outside air quality.
