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Directories Int'l Realty US Realty
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Dusting, Just For the Health Of It Stuart Lieberman, Esq., Do you sneeze a lot? Do you have allergy symptoms while inside your home? Lots of people have indoor allergic reactions. But, a common household allergy problem relates to dust. Not the dust itself, but rather something found in the dust called dust mites. You see, while dust itself might make you sick, often its these little critters called dust mites that make you sick. And worse yet, it is the dust mite waste that actually does so. Dust mites are little bugs that measure about 1/100th of an inch. For a longtime scientists have known that dust mites are responsible for the allergic reactions in asthma that people experience inside their homes. This means that cleanliness is not only visually appealing, but good for your health as well. In fact, when you're dusting, especially if you're prone to become sick as a result of dust exposure, wear a dust mask. You do not want to become sick just because you are curing this problem. Probably, you should look at a HEPA filter. You want to keep the dust out, and you want to have a good filter to keep your air clean. There is no doubt that bedrooms are a wonderful area for dust mites to reside. You see dust mites die if they lack an adequate amount of moisture and humidity. And people like to maintain their homes with a comfortable degree of humidity. Some experts say that most of the dust mites in your house live within your mattress. Since you spend a significant amount of time a day with your nose and mouth right next to your mattress, this provides a wonderful opportunity for you to become real sick while sleeping. Experts say that you should consider putting an airtight plastic cover on your mattress and wash your sheets and blankets in hot water every week. Who really has time to do that? You should also wash your pillow every week and put a cover on it. Who really does that? You probably should not bedroom carpeting either. Hardwood or tile is supposed to be better. The carpeting is also a great place for these microscopic critters to live. The science is really disgusting with regard to these things. Dust mites eat skin that sheds off people everyday. People are kind of like snakes, they lose their skin and these things eat that skin. Also, mites do not even drink water. Instead, they suck molecules of moisture from the air. The reason that dust mites do so well in mattresses is because while people are sleeping, they lose a lot of their skin cells. And, as I told you, it is not the mites themselves that make people sick, but the mite droppings. So the whole picture of these things living off of dead skin, sucking moisture out of the air, and making people sick as a result of their excrement is just so ghastly, that it should encourage you to get a dust mop out, wear a mask, and get rid of the dust so that you do not have these problems. Scientists are actually looking at this issue as well. A recent study suggests that dust mites cluster together in order to live in low humidity environments. Apparently, when you raise the heat in your house, the amount of humidity tends to go down. That is why people put on whole house humidifiers and attach them to the forced hot air systems. Naturally, dust mites become vulnerable in low humidity environments and might die. By clustering, there is apparently a prevention of water loss, and this saves them. Or at least this is the prevailing view. Perhaps this is common in the animal kingdom, but males are less hardy than females, which is why males need to cluster more than females. Males generally live only 45 days, whereas females live about 90 days. So dust off that dust mop and use it often. Your nose and lungs will thank you.
The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.
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