Black carbon (BC) is increasingly discussed in
science and environmental policy areas as an
example of an air pollutant that affects both human
health and contributes to climate change (e.g. WHO,
2012; UNEP/WMO, 2011; Bond et al., 2013; IPCC,
2013). In order to be able to make comparable
measurements of BC in ambient air and to relate BC
monitoring to health impacts and climate change it
is important to understand how BC is defined.