Environmental Trends 2007

Air Quality

Communities in British Columbia Achieving the Canada-wide Standard (CWS) for Particulate Matter (PM2.5)

Photo credit: Ministry of Transportation

Suspended particulate matter is composed of tiny, airborne solid or liquid particles. It is now known that the greatest threats to health come from particles under 2.5 µm in diameter (PM 2.5). These are just one-twentieth of the width of a human hair and can penetrate deeply into the lungs.

Sources of these fine particles include naturally occurring dust, as well as soot and smoke emitted by motor vehicles, marine vessels, power plants, factories, construction, wood burning and other activities.

 

In 2006, all B.C. communities had levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) below the Canada-wide Standard.

Note: Calculations for the CWS are based on the one daily value over the course of a year that is higher than 98 per cent of all other daily values. These values are then averaged over three consecutive years. The threshold to determine achievement is 30 µg/m3.
Source: B.C. Ministry of Environment

  • Communities in the interior regions of the province typically have higher levels of particulate matter than coastal communities. This is due to factors such as the larger number of wood burning sources and a greater frequency of air inversions that trap smoke in the interior.

  • Replacing older inefficient wood stoves with EPA/CSA-certified stoves would make a major difference because certified stoves burn one-third less wood and produce 70 per cent less smoke.

For detailed information, including graph data, see In-Depth Report [pdf].

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