[fireman15]

I do not think that we actually disagree on anything that has any substantial impact on anything. As far as the ratio of particles in cigarette smoke over .2 microns... I had never seen a study previously that made any analysis of the percentage of particles that were more than a certain diameter, but one would expect that the smoke from other types of fires would tend to have larger particles than cigarettes.

My nonscientific 25 years of experience crawling around in various types of fires would indicate that smoke gets into absolutely everything. Despite wearing protective clothing that one might think would stop it, everything stinks after you have been in a house fire including your underwear and your skin. That would indicate that the particles are smaller than one might believe and that dust masks and even N95 type masks are worthless in smoke, that is one of the reasons why we wear Self Contained Breathing Apparatus and not some type of filter mask.

[palmer]

From your link: sizes ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 micron, peaked between 0.2 and 0.25 micron. which baaically agrees with what I said. Also keep in mind that you are smelling the volatile hydrocarbons in the smoke which are about 0.001 micron or so.

It's the same argument I hear a lot: if I can smell something, then I can be infected by a virus. It assumes I am smelling droplets of something. But that's not correct, I can smell molecules which are 1000 times smaller than any droplet.

even N95 type masks are worthless in smoke

Due to the volatile molecules, not the particles. You will die in a burning house with an N95 mask, no doubt about that. Here's how: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396464/ Bottom line: various gases can kill you (100 times smaller than the virus) and particles containing acids and other toxins. Some of those particles would be stopped by some masks although the article doesn't go into that.