Indoor Air Pollution

The Dust Mite Army

The house dust mite is an invisible enemy polluting the air inside your office or home. You may have heard of dust mites before and how there are tens-upon-thousands of them living in your house as you read this, reproducing, eating and excreting. Yet quite a lot of us just disregard them even though they can be very damaging to our health and we know that but because you cannot see them then you don’t treat them as a serious threat to your health. But what if I said you could see them? Try getting a sheet of jet black fabric or a piece of paper of the same colour and dust your pillow or sofa cushion over it. In normal light you should be able to see tiny white specs and if you focus hard enough you can actually see them scurry about. Not a pleasant experience yet a necessary one and one that will immediately make you want to scrub down every corner of your home, right?

So, a creature that is that damaging to your health and you can even see it with the naked eye? Surely its threat levels now must have peaked for you, and no doubt they are about to get higher when I tell you about all the nasty things they can do to your health.

The Dust Mite Incursion against your health

First off let me ask you, do you ever have those days where you are just not feeling right. When it’s even harder to get out of bed and go to work than it usually is. Your confused because last night you managed to get a good nine hours of sleep (a habit you have got into for the last few months), you have been eating healthier than you ever have been before and you are getting plenty of exercise, far exceeding what the government and health officials suggest you do. So what is the problem? Not knowing why you feel like you do can be frustrating and make you feel even worse, so let me point the finger at the likely candidate; DUST MITES.

Dust mites reproduce at an alarming rate (even faster than bunny rabbits) which can be very bad for your health. As well as this all they do is eat and excrete, filling your air with their waste. And that is just the live ones as all the dead dust mites just remain in the air in your house unless you do something about it. The effects on your health are as follows:

1. The body can eventually become allergic to the dust mites which can cause:
   1. inflamed or infected eczema
   2. frequent sneezing
   3. Itchiness
   4. runny nose
   5. and a build up of particulates in the lungs clogging it up
2. Dust mites can also be very damaging to anyone that may have asthma or any other medical problem relating to breathing and the lungs.

How to solve the problem

Dust mites can be killed quite easily, all you have to do is wash your bed sheets as well as cushion covers on you sofas and any carpets you have in the house, basically dust mites can settle anywhere yet are more prevalent in carpets, fabrics and linen. Temperatures of over 60°C or below freezing (0°C) will kill 90% to all dust mites subjected to that temperature change and washing anything with regular washing machine soup will clean away the dead dust mites as well as their ‘leavings’. However what about all the dust mites floating about in your air? An air purifier can easily fix that and comes even more highly recommended than washing down your furniture and bedding on a regular basis as it does all the work and is much more beneficial to your health.

Obviously having a clean house is beneficial and goes without saying yet you can quite easily have a normal, healthy and manageable cleaning pattern coupled with an air purifier and you will be able to enjoy clean, fresh tasting air on a daily basis inside your own home.

To find out more on air pollutants check out the book The Silent Killer by Pete Billac or even have a look at the range of air purifiers they do at EcoQuest as they are some of the best and come highly recommended.