47,000 people die in Germany every year due to air pollution from fine dust and nitrogen oxide, as estimated by the Federal Environment Agency in 2014. Fine dust pollution increases continuously, even in your seemingly safe home and office. To prevent the simple act of breathing from becoming a hazard, we need a reliable particle measuring device such as the BQ20 – our compact new environment measuring unit for determining fine dust pollution, air temperature and humidity.
Mucous membranes and nose hairs do not deter them: As opposed to coarse dust, fine dust particles have a diameter of less than 0.01 millimetres, or 10 micrometres. These tiny fine dust particles wander through the respiratory tract of the human body and from there into the bronchial tubes. Smaller particles with a diameter under 2.5 micrometres (PM 2.5) can penetrate the air sacs, and particles under 1 micrometer can even penetrate the blood vessels – thereby increasing the risk of heart attack, lung disease or even lung cancer.
Fine dust is everywhere – even at home and at the office
What is the maximum amount of fine dust that can float in the air without making breathing a hazard? The experts are of two prevailing opinions: While the European Union agreed on an annual average of 40 micrograms per cubic metre, the World Health Organisation WHO considers anything over 20 µg/m³ to be alarming. However, you can precisely determine how great the fine dust pollution actually is in your apartment and at your workplace with the BQ20 particle measuring device: In privately used rooms, the air is polluted through cooking, roasting, hoovering as well as through the use of laser printers, copiers, open fireplaces and pellet heaters. Even your workspace at the office is generally not free of fine dust – as a result of the use of laser printers and copiers.
BQ20 – for perfect monitoring of air quality at your workplace, in public facilities and at home
With the BQ20, particulate fractions can be simultaneously determined as PM10 and PM2.5 according to the common international PM Standard (particulate matter). In addition, the BQ20 measures the quantitative concentrations of airborne inhalable (PM10) and respirable (PM2.5) dust and shows the amount per cubic meter of ambient air on its colour display. Moreover, it informs you of the status of the current particle pollution with a coloured bar graph indicator. In this way, with the BQ20 you can at all times quickly receive quantitative notifications about the prevalent fine dust concentration – and for example judge whether the limit values for fine dust concentration are being observed at the workplace.
In addition, the measuring device allows you to define individual limit values and signals an acoustic alarm when it is exceeded – an especially useful function when using the BQ20 to constantly monitor indoor spaces. For this kind of long-term application, the otherwise mobile, battery-powered BQ20 can be powered via USB cable to save battery power.
Particle measuring device BQ20 – the compact and precise environmental measuring unit
The BQ20 includes an integrated tripod socket and comes with a practical base as well as a power supply unit, which enables battery saving operation even for longer series of measurements with up to 5,000 data sets that can be recorded in the internal memory.
