Hello Tunza Readers!

I am back with the second installment of my ambassador reports and today I will be sharing about atmospheric particulate matter. Don?t worry — if you don?t understand this topic or you need me to refresh your memory I?ll be going into a description of it!

Atmospheric particulate matter are microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in Earth?s atmosphere. This matter can further be divided into coarse and fine particles. Coarse particles come from the mechanical breakup of larger solid particles. These can come from dust from roads, agricultural processes, uncovered soil or mining operations, as well as materials released when burning fossil fuels. Natural sources of coarse particles can come from pollen grains and insect parts. Fine particles are formed from gases and they can grow larger through condensation or coagulation. Particular matter is harmful to our health as larger fractions attach to small hairs in the respiratory tract, and can cause lung irritation which leads to increased permeability in lung tissue.

Now that you know what atmospheric particulate matter is I?m going to look at this topic in terms of Canada — specifically the agriculture industry. The situation in Canada has been amazingly improving in recent years! Across agricultural areas in Canada, particulate matter emissions have decreased by 63% of total suspended particulate, 58% of coarse particles, and 61% for fine particles since 1981. The greatest improvements are seen in the Prairie Provinces which can be attributed to a reduction in summerfallow (cropland purposely kept out of production during a regular growing season), as well as reduced tillage and no-till practices in the Prairie region. These changes reduce the quantity of particulates produced during land preparation and harvesting. The situation is steadily improvement as in 1981 Canada was put in an at risk section while in 2011 it is now in a moderate situation —indicating safer conditions.

It?s great that atmospheric particulate matter is becoming less of a concern in Canada, but there are still so many environmental issues that remain in Canada — so we have to focus our efforts towards these other issues!