Excessive Dust Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Household dust is made up of skin cells, hair fragments, clothing fibres, pollen, mould spores, pet dander, rodent droppings, asbestos fibres, fibre glass, bacteria, viruses and the list goes on. Household dust is normal and there is no such thing as a completely dust free environment. Even certified clean rooms have some dust...just at minute levels.

Airborne dust in your home is inescapable, however, there is a way to manage it at low levels.

So how do we manage the dust that we breathe? Simple, find out the source, assess your air purification systems (or lack there of) and install air purifiers that work. To do that successfully, you may need to have your indoor air quality tested first. An indoor air quality test can show you what your dust levels are, what is contained in the dust and how to remove the harmful allergens and pathogens from your dust in your home.

Here are a few pointers:

Indoor dust can and will accumulate indoors if you have poor ventilation. Think of a balloon or plastic bubble. Now imagine living inside that plastic bubble. Anything that gets created stays inside the plastic bubble such as dust and chemicals until you remove it. In other words, dust will accumulate until you filter it out of your home air and your home. Proper filtration and air purification systems as well as HEPA filtered vacuum cleaners are key in removing settled dust and airborne dust from your home.

If you have excessive settled dust, this could be a warning sign that you have an airborne dust issue. Light white dust can come from fine dust but also from room humidifiers. In winter many of us use portable or central humidifiers to increase the relative humidity indoors. Central humidifiers installed near your furnace usually do not contribute to the overall dust load indoors. However, portable humidifiers can.

When water evaporates, it leaves the impurities behind and only pure water evaporates in the indoor environment. Unfortunately, ultra sonic type humidifiers do not use this evaporative technology. An ultrasonic agitation method is used to aerosolize the liquid, be it water or water with essential oils. The issue is that if the water contains impurities or high calcium levels, these impurities can then also become part of the air you breathe. Any particles aerosolized will eventually also settle. Settled dust with calcium can give the white fins dust appearance on furniture and contents in a home.

Fine dust can be a problem for people with allergies and breathing issues. Airborne fine dust and pollution can lead to minor allergic reactions to serious respiratory diseases and sinus infections.

The proper air filtration and air purification systems in your home will make all the difference. Proper air filtration will lower the airborne pollution in the air indoors and will also decrease settled dust. Less dust indoors will provide a healthier indoor environment and will support good indoor air quality and respiratory health for all occupants.

Indoor Air Quality Testing is the first step to better indoor air quality, less airborne dust and less settled dust.