Last year, tiny particles of sand, wood and asbestos contributed to 12, deaths from lung disease in the UK , according to the Health and Safety Executive. Many more deaths will have been caused by exposure outside the workplace, including to particulates produced by cars. Repeated, long-term exposure to high levels of dust of any form can harm your health.
Normal household exposure will probably not cause you any problems, but working in a dusty environment may well do so. If dust in the air reaches a high-enough level, it can also cause explosions — which are certainly harmful to health! We found several flame retardants, which are added to household and consumer products, but not at levels considered to be damaging to health.
We also discovered that, in indoor environments, dust is a major contributor to human exposure to these flame retardants. To answer this question — or ask a new one — email lastword newscientist. Here at Hughes Environmental we deal with dust every day, where it ranges from cleaning commercial ducts to combustible dust remediation.
For instance, did you know that certain metals can explode when they are turned into a dust? People have been trying to get rid of household dust for ages, and the first vacuum cleaner was invented in This vacuum was so large it was horse drawn, had to be parked outside, and ran on gasoline.
This dead skin combines with other particles to create household dust. Dust in houses and offices is made up of a combination of pollen, hair, textile fibers, paper fibers, soil minerals, cosmic dust particles, and various other materials found in the local environment. Many people claim to be allergic to dust, but in many cases they are actually having an allergic reaction to dust mites.
These mites eat the dead skin and their dead bodies and fecal matter cause allergic reactions in people. Up to dust mites can survive on just 1 gram of dust. Depending on how small the particle is, dust is capable of staying suspended in the air for up to 5 days.
The Sahara desert is the largest source of dust in the entire world, and million tons of dust from this desert blows across the Atlantic Ocean to South America, where it fertilizes the Ocean and the Amazon rainforest. While the Sahara is the largest source of atmospheric dust, an estimated 5 billion tons of dust is transmitted through the atmosphere each year. Some estimates suggest one third of trace element contaminants in household dust originate from sources inside your home, with the rest migrating from outside via air, clothes, pets, shoes and the like.
You and your pets are constantly contributing skin cells and hair to dust. Dust is also made up of decomposing insects, bits of food, plastic and soil. Intuitively, one might think having pets transporting a variety of organic contaminants including faeces into homes is somewhat gross. Cooking, open fireplaces and smoking indoors adds very fine dust to your home along with contaminants of concern , which are associated with poor health outcomes.
Chemicals used in pesticides and in our clothing and furniture also combine with dust in our homes. Dust also contains microplastics from clothes, packaging, carpeting and furnishings.
These chemicals are in our house dust, too. About two-thirds of household dust comes from outdoors. Garden soil and road dust gets tracked in on your shoes or blown in on windy days. Outdoor dust particles get in on the hairs of your pets. Vehicle exhaust dust also gets inside. Recent dust storms have transported topsoil from farming lands and desert regions to our homes in the city. Bushfires create fine particulate atmospheric dust , which can contain toxic components from past pollution.
Dust from nearby mines and industry can result in toxic exposures to children. Poor air quality and damp homes are a source of disease and death. By deduction, dust would also contribute to adverse health outcomes. Certain types of dust are particularly bad; there are renewed exposures concerns about silicosis dust for tradespeople, and asbestos dust from home renovation.
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