PARTICULATE CONTAMINANTS: PARTICULATE CONTAMINANTS

Here are some familiar contaminants. A single strand of hair will run roughly from 70 to 100 microns in diameter. As we work our way down the scale, you can see the relative sizes of particles such as ground flour, red blood cells, bacteria, and tobacco smoke. To filter out particulates as small as these (and often smaller), a filtration system using high efficiency filters is necessary.
Scale showing sizes of particles from human hair at 70 microns , a red blood cell at 8 microns, to tobacco smoke at 2 microns.
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Florida Space Research Institute ©2002