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The question of air quality monitoring tools is a complicated subject to grasp as a whole, as the composition of the air we breathe is extremely vast and complex. Nevertheless, the aim of these measures must be to protect health and the environment.

Thus, with regard to particulate matter (PM), several metrics for observing and quantifying health exposure have been proposed: particle size distribution, chemical species present, mass concentration. But each of these observations only takes into account one type of property of the pollutants concerned. Thus, in view of the great variety of chemistry, form, reaction surface, size, etc. of aerosols, it appears complicated to summarise the toxicity of the air we breathe to their simple mass concentration. Indeed, it is obvious that breathing one µg of sand will not have the same impact on our health as one µg of mercury or lead. The measurement of mass concentrations is however one of the simplest to implement in routine and is also easily automated, thus allowing a first approach quantification of the exposure of populations. However, it is necessary to develop more integrative measurements, allowing the chemical, physical and biological diversity of the air to be taken into account, while also taking into account the potential health impact on the human biological system.