Toxic chemicals in household dust may be more than what you would expect it to be and may prompt you to become more conscious of germs that can be harmful to you and how they proliferate.
Toxic chemicals in household dust may cause diseases
Aside from harmful germs that people are afraid of when talking about an unkempt and dirty household is enough to send shivers down your spine, researchers from the George Washington University believes that there is a more sinister threat to health lurking under your floor carpet.
“We wanted to identify which chemicals were present at the highest exposure in homes,” said Dr. Ami Zota, an assistant professor of environmental occupational health who led the study. “Some chemicals were in virtually every dust sample.”
Dr. Zota says that their study led to the discovery of 45 toxic substances found in common house dust. Ten of these are found in no less than 90% of homes across the United States.
Massive data analysis
To identify the toxins, the research team analyzed all studies dating back from 2000, where they were searching for the presence of toxic chemicals. The team divided the it into five chemical classes and they found two that were common – flame retardants and phthalates.
Those chemicals commonly found in dust were believed to come from typical household items that you see everyday – vinyl floor tiles, baby products, cosmetics, nail polish and furniture.
Phthalates are chemicals used to make PVC more flexible, as well as with other common household items like furniture, flooring, blinds and food packaging, while the flame retardants were used back then by as a building code requirement.
Chemical dangers
Phthalates have been found to affect early life development, which have also been found to disrupt the production of hormones in the body. There have also been studies that point to increased risk of behavioural, respiratory and neurodevelopmental conditions.
Among some of the most effective home cleaning practices that can prevent exposure to these toxic chemicals is to use powerful vacuum cleaners equipped with a HEPA filter to ensure that all dust particles are sucked up accordingly.
Regular and thorough and washing with soap also eliminates contamination of germs and unless strong sanitation and hygiene awareness takes place, everyone would continue to be at great risk.
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