How to reduce PM10 dust on site

Why PM10 is different

Coarse dust settles within metres. PM10 — particles under 10 μm — stays airborne for minutes and travels with wind, which is why visible control measures can still leave a site non-compliant at the boundary. Anything that only wets the ground will not fix a PM10 reading.

Where PM10 is generated, and what to do

The counter-intuitive part: the biggest PM10 sources are often not the ones that look dustiest.

• Material drops and transfer points: the largest single source on most plants. Fix with lances at the drop point.
• Crushing and screening: continuous fine generation under a visible cloud; hood plus misting.
• Loading and unloading: short, high-intensity bursts; trigger by activity rather than clock.
• Haul roads and compacted surfaces: sustained contribution; keep wheel-wash and road wetting separate from your source-suppression design.

How to know it is working

Two ways, and you should design for both from the start:

• Instrument response: a site boundary monitor before and after commissioning gives you a baseline. Our published figure for correctly designed systems is PM10 reduction ≥ 70%, measured at the source, not at the boundary.
• Automatic triggering tied to a dust sensor: this both improves performance (no spraying empty air) and gives you a control log that is useful in a compliance conversation.
• A schedule that matches production: suppression that runs at night and stops at the start of the shift is worse than nothing, because it also creates a maintenance problem.