Particulate matter in air - any impact to small diesel engine?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Compass790

Thank you for your excellent tutorials Gord May. Bit late for me as I was a welder.

But, I've yet to see a welder, in northern Quebec (or Nova Scotia), affect air quality in New York city (entire NE USA).

Welding fumes are a complex mixture of metals, metallic oxides, silicates and fluorides. Fumes are formed when a metal is heated above its boiling point, and its vapours condense into very fine, particles (solid particulate). Welding fumes generally contain metal oxide particles, from the electrode and the material being welded.
The majority of particles (98.8%), in welding fumes, are ultrafine (< 0.4 μm, microns).

The majority of welding fumes is, therefore, mostly (only?) harmful to the health of welders, and other nearby employees (localized).

[GordMay]

A 2020 Stanford University study [1] quantified what breathing in PM2.5 particulate matter would mean, in terms of cigarettes.

According to the study, an AQI* (for PM2.5) of about 22, outside for 8 hours, is about the same as smoking one cigarette.

The study noted that exposure to wildfire smoke causing an AQI* of 150, for several days, would be equivalent to smoking about seven cigarettes, a day, if someone were outside the whole time.

There are studies [2 & 3], that have shown that life expectancy is shortened, by 10 years as firefighter, and that the most frequent causes of death are typically cardiovascular disease. Here are a recent review [2], and study [3], concerning the risk of firefighters’ exposures to smoke from wildfires, over the long course of their careers.

* While the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), used in Canada. reflects current knowledge of the health effects associated with air pollution, and measures on a scale of 10; the Air Quality Index (AQI), used in the U.S. is based on air quality standards, and is measured on a scale of 0 to 500.
The higher the value, the greater the level of air pollution; where a level of 50 (or under) is considered “good” (good is relative); anything over 300 is considered "hazardous".
The U.S. AQI is EPA’s index for reporting air quality.
➥ https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basic...0air%20quality.

[1] “Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke” ~ Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
MUCH More ➥ https://woods.stanford.edu/stanford-...wildfire-smoke




[2] “A systematic review of the health impacts of occupational exposure to wildland fires” ~ by Emily Groot et al
➥ http://ijomeh.eu/pdf-93189-36910?fil...eview%20of.pdf

[3] “Wildland firefighter smoke exposure and risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality” ~ by Kathleen M. Navarro et al
➥ https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...94X?via%3Dihub

The CBC’s Climate Dashboard has new features. Click on the layers icon, on the globe, to see wildfire smoke, and active fires. Air quality is also now available, for many locations across Canada.
➥ https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/feat...ate-dashboard/

[roryboy]

Your engine is making a hell of a lot more soot particles than the Canadian air it is breathing in.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by roryboy

Your engine is making a hell of a lot more soot particles than the Canadian air it is breathing in.

Which may be [partly] why, few experts recommend sucking directly on a diesel exhaust pipe.

[jamhass]

Years ago, I drove through the worst of the Mt St Helens ash plume in an old VW squareback. Where other vehicles were destroyed, we were fine. Reason was the oil-bath air cleaner on that old VW. Oil in the filter was mud at the end, but all well otherwise.

Lesson: If in doubt, maybe rig such a filter or use a oil-dampened foam filter (such as a KN?)

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by deblen

This is pure woodsmoke, of the type burned worldwide for millennia.

... ah yes. Back when human life expectancy was in the high 40s.

[capt jgw]

If yours is the 1/4" thick black band in the air intake can, it's not really a filter, it's an air silencer. Particles as big as 1/16" will blow right through it. And they degrade pretty quickly and fall apart and get sucked through the engine. I replaced mine with a proper filter made for a garden tractor that fit the intake. There's not much dust in the engine bay, but there is some.

[RocketScott]

Who needs a filter?

*laughs in 4JH3E*

[GordMay]

The Economic Cost of Wildfire Smoke:

A forthcoming paper [1], co-authored by David Molitor. in the Review of Economics and Statistics, estimates that, between 2007 and 2019, U.S. earnings were reduced by an average of $125 billion a year, because of wildfires.

"Air quality matters for more than just health outcomes," David Molitor, the study's co-author and an associate professor of finance and economics at the University of Illinois, said in an interview. "It shows up in the statistics for economic productivity."

Another study [2], published last month in the journal Science of the Total Environment, concluded smoke particulates, from wildfires, could ultimately lead to between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths, in the U.S., and cost a staggering $36 billion to $82 billion a year in health care.
For instance, Los Angeles — downwind from many of the fires in the western U.S. — may see 119 premature deaths annually, and $1.07 billion in financial burden, the study said. Those numbers would be far higher, if the research had drawn on this summer's smoky air.

In the midst of Canada's record wildfire season this year, Dave Sawyer, an environmental economist at the Climate Institute of Canada, tried to calculate the health cost of smoke in this country. [3] He figured that, during a particularly smoky stretch, from June 4 to 8, the estimated price tag of smoke-related health care alone, was $1.28 billion, in Ontario alone.

[1] “Air pollution via wildfire smoke takes toll on labor markets”
➥ https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1610532712

[2] “Quantifying the premature mortality and economic loss from wildfire-induced PM2.5 in the contiguous U.S.” ~ by Shuai Pan et al
➥ https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...48969723012305

[3] “With the forest ablaze, the health costs hit home” ~ by Dave Sawyer, Seton Stiebert, & Colin Welburn
➥ https://climateinstitute.ca/with-the...osts-hit-home/

[GordMay]

“Wildland firefighters' respiratory health to be studied by UBC”
The B.C. Wildfire Services (BCWS), in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, is embarking on what they're considering "groundbreaking" research, looking at the respiratory health of wildland firefighters.
Researchers will track firefighters' cardiorespiratory systems over the next two years collecting data before, during and after the fire season.
In June 2022, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified firefighting as a known human carcinogen, stating firefighters have a 14 per cent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general public. In Canada, more than 85 per cent of firefighter fatality claims are attributed to cancer.
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...alth-1.7168504

See also:
“Canada at risk of another devastating wildfire season, federal government warns”
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/cana...ment-1.7169287

[GordMay]

As another wildfire season gets underway, in Canada, researchers with the Northern Tornadoes Project [NTP], at Western University, have found a curious link, between wildfires and tornadoes.

Over the last few years, when we have a really big fire year, like last year, we tend to get less tornadoes.

Last year, Canada saw some 18 million hectares of its vast forests go up in smoke, resulting in eight deaths, and tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes. As the fires burned, blankets of smoke drifted across the continent, smothering Canadian and U.S. cities in an acrid fog, so thick that it rolled back decades of air-quality gains.

That continent-spanning veil of wood smoke, seems to have a diminishing effect on the size, and power of thunderstorms.
Having that smoke, up there, really cuts down on the amount of sunlight, getting down to the ground, and heating the ground, thus providing instability for thunderstorms.

Last year, there were the same number of storms, as usual, but their intensity was notably less. If that's the case, the chance of getting a tornado, with a less intense storm, is obviously less, as well. According to data from the London, Ont., university, Canada experienced a record-breaking 129 tornadoes in 2022. In 2023, amid the worst wildfire season this country has ever seen, there were just 86 twisters.

The Northern Tornadoes Project [NTP] recently created an online portal [1], on 40 years worth of scientifically collected information on tornadoes, from 1980 to 2020, giving anyone, with internet access, an unprecedented look, at Canada's extreme weather.

The open data project has already shown that Canada's Tornado Alley has also moved Eastwards, from Saskatchewan to Ontario, in the last 20 years.

About:
[1a] “NTP's new Advanced Dashboard released” ➥ https://www.uwo.ca/ntp/blog/2024/ntps_new_advanced_dashboard_released.html

[1b] NTP Portal ➥ https://westernu.maps.arcgis.com/app...e5792f5247f46d

[2] “The Hunt for Missing Tornadoes: Using Satellite Imagery to Detect and Document Historical Tornado Damage in Canadian Forests” ~ by Joanne Kunkel, John Hanesiak, and David Sills
➥ https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/jo...l?tab_body=pdf