Particulate pollution is pollution of an environment that consists of particles suspended in some medium. There are three primary forms: atmospheric particulate matter, marine debris, and space debris.
Contents
Particle pollution, also called particulate matter or PM, is a mixture of solids and liquid droplets floating in the air. Some particles are released directly from a specific source, while others form in complicated chemical reactions in the atmosphere.
Atmospheric particulate matter
Atmospheric particulate matter describes particulates suspended in a gas, and particularly in the atmosphere of the Earth.
Marine debris
Marine debris describes particulates suspended in a liquid, and particularly in water occurring on the surface of the Earth. Particulates in water are a kind of water pollution measured as total suspended solids, a water quality measurement listed as a conventional pollutant in the U.S. Clean Water Act, a water quality law.
Notably, some of the same kinds of particles can be suspended both in air and water, and pollutants specifically may be carried in the air and deposited in water, or fall to the ground as acid rain.
Space debris
Space debris describes particulates in the vacuum of outer space, and specifically refers to particles originating with human activity that remain in geocentric orbit around the Earth.