Agricultural dust gets more accurate measurements: ARS scientists claim larger particles in agricultural dust are less harmful to health than was once claimed.

Implement & Tractor, July, 2004

Agricultural dust is not as serious a potential health problem as previously thought, according to Michael Buser, an Agricultural Research Service scientist who has found a more accurate way to measure dust pollution from agricultural operations.

Buser and his colleagues at the ARS Cropping Systems Research Laboratory in Lubbock, Texas, have found that it is more accurate to use total suspended particulate (TSP) samplers to obtain a total concentration of dust, followed by a lab analysis of the sampling filter. The analysis determines particle-size distributions, as well as the percentage of the dust sample's total mass that is made up of smaller dust particles.

Buser evaluated the air samplers of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and found they...