If a particulate level of 301 is hazardous, what is 807? Cottage Grove on Thursday night

by Mark Furman

Fri, September 11th 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

Bob Williams shared this photo of the Holiday Farm Fire up the McKenzie River valley via CHIME IN.

{p}The primary pollutant from wildfires is particulate matter (µg/m3). These are particles 30 times smaller that the diameter of human hair. Air monitors measure how many of these particles are in a cubic meter and convert them to a value on Air Quality Index. Lane County’s air has exceeded the Air Quality Index top value of 500 many times. So how far beyond the AQI have we gone? Thursday night Cottage Grove recorded 807 µg/m3, well beyond the upper limits of the AQI.{/p}

{p}And a particle measurement of nearly 1,000? That's Florence on Wednesday night, as the measure for tiny dangerous bits of pollution known as PM 2.5 - particular matter smaller than 2.5 nanometers - crested 975.{/p}

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Bob Williams shared this photo of the Holiday Farm Fire up the McKenzie River valley via CHIME IN.

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