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Air Supply

Given that up to 90% of our time is spent in the home, it’s important to make sure that it’s a completely safe environment. Let’s start with the air you breathe indoors.

Your home is the last place you would expect to make you sick. Our homes should provide a safe and welcoming environment. They should be places that help us maintain our good health. However, our homes can actually be a huge source of ill health. Did you know that indoor air can be much more detrimental to breathe than outdoor air? The air in the home plays a major role in the health of an individual, particularly if they suffer from asthma or allergies.

Poor indoor air is ranked fifth by the World Health Organisation as a cause of ill health worldwide, with indoor air being up to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air. “As we spend 90% of our time indoors this needs to become a real health concern for all of us. Why would we agree to breathe contaminated air when we would not agree to drink contaminated water?” says Dr Bruce Mitchell, Medical Chairman of Allergy Standards Limited, an immunologist in the Blackrock Clinic.

Home culprits

Allergens are one of the major triggers for acute asthma attacks in sensitive individuals. The World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA and many other specialist organisations all agree that avoidance of exposure to indoor allergens is on important component of the treatment of allergic asthma and upper airway disease in sensitised individuals. The dust mite, domestic pets, moulds and in certain latitudes cock-roaches represent the major perennial allergens. In Irish homes, the house dust mite is the most important domestic allergen. Children with asthma, rhinitis or eczema are usually allergic with the great majority reacting to house dust mites. Because of the climate in Ireland, mite levels are higher than in some other countries, emphasising the importance of this allergen here.

How to reduce dust in the living room

Furniture

  • Do not overfill the room with furniture.
  • Avoid open shelves. Place books and ornaments in shelves and cabinets behind closed doors.
  • Put the TV-set and the hi-fi in a cupboard with a door that can close.
  • Leather or vinyl furniture is easier to dust than upholstered furniture.
  • Throw cotton drapes over furniture and wash them regularly in hot water.

Windows and ventilation

  • Avoid heavy drapes and curtains that can collect dust. Blinds and lighter curtaining material, that can easily be washed, are preferable.
  • Ventilate your house well by opening the windows when possible.

Floor covering

  • Wall-to-wall carpets are good dust collectors – tiles or wooden floors or loose carpets are recommended instead. Seal the cracks in wooden floors so that dust does not gather there.
  • Limit houseplants, as they encourage fungal growth.
  • Store firewood outside, and avoid fireplaces and open hearths.
  • Consider installing under floor heating or air conditioning if your house is too humid or damp.
  • Brush your pets outside.

Cleaning

  • Vacuum clean all carpets daily on which children play. Vacuum clean the entire house two or more times per week. Ensure that the vacuum cleaner's filter works well, otherwise you will only be redistributing dust throughout the house.
  • Few live dust mites are sucked up – it is better to kill them first, because they cling to the carpets. Wet vacuum cleaning is more effective, unless the carpets stay damp, which would encourage the growth of colonies of house mites and fungal growths.
  • Wipe surfaces at least twice a week with a damp cloth.

How to keep your home free of dust mites

It’s disconcerting that bugs live in your bed and there are plenty of them. They’re called house dust mites and they quietly live off the flakes of skin you shed, or they can make your life hell. Recent technological advances have been recognised as a major step forward in the war against house dust mites. In the past, only products made from vinyl based air impermeable fabrics were available, but they have major disadvantages.

  • Although acting as a barrier to dust mite allergen, the effect of moving the head and body's weight particularly on the pillow, causes a so-called ballooning effect. This in turn creates a spume, or high-pressure jet of allergen-bearing air that then escapes through seams and stitching. It’s important to keep the mattress, duvet and pillow well ventilated at all times. They must also remain cool and dry to discourage infestation.
  • Individuals with allergic predispositions can also be susceptible to eczema and rhinitis. Their symptoms are made worse by moist warm conditions and other bacteria thrive. Try to keep everything cool and well-ventilated.
  • Air permeability is essential for comfort and safety, especially with the growing number of younger allergic sufferers.
  • While the bed cover must allow for air flow it must also prevent the dust mites and their faeces from escaping; The use of double flap closures on protectors for mattresses, duvets and pillows is more effective than conventional zip fasteners.

How to reduce dust in the bedroom

Furniture

  • Don't overfill the room with furniture.
  • Choose light furniture with clean lines that can easily be cleaned and moved around.
  • Put books, CDs and toys in cupboards and keep the doors closed so that house mites do not settle inside.
  • Heaps of books, dried flowers, thick drapes and curtains all gather dust. Limit
    the presence of these in your bedroom if you are unable to keep it spotlessly clean.
  • Tiles and loose mats are easier to keep clean than wall-to-wall carpets. Choose
    short pile carpets or cotton mats that can be kept clean more easily than long pile carpets.

Windows and ventilation

  • Make sure that clean air circulates during the day in the room and keep the windows slightly ajar, if possible.
  • Put a filter over the air conditioning unit's vent to prevent animal hair, dust and fungus spores get blown into the room through the air conditioning vent.
  • The cleaner and drier the air while you are sleeping, the better.
  • Don't allow pets into the bedroom.

Bedding

  • Avoid feather pillows, feather duvets or down eiderdowns and choose synthetic duvets instead.
  • Wash linen in very warm water (at least 56 degrees Celsius) and use your tumble drier's warmest setting – it will kill the house mites.
  • Replace your pillows every six months.
  • It is important that your mattress and bed be dry and not sweaty or stuffy.
  • If you have a bunk bed, let your asthmatic child sleep on the top one.
  • Draw back the bed linen in the morning so that the mattress can be aired.
  • Use an electrical blanket in the winter – it will keep the bedding dry and warm.
  • Stay away from upholstered headboards.
  • Clean properly under the bed on a regular basis.

Soft toys

  • Limit woolly soft toys and pack them away inside a cupboard or a drawer. Wash every month at a temperature of at least 60 degrees Celsius. Place them in the freezer for six hours and then vacuum them to get out the dead house mites.

Cleaning

  • Vacuum clean carpets daily on which the children play.
  • Do not vacuum clean, dust or clean a hay fever sufferer's room or asthmatic's
    room just before bedtime.

This information has been reproduced with kind permission of Zahra Publishing, publishers of Easy Health, www.easyhealth.ie.