So, you might ask, why the absurd title?
Well, wouldn’t you agree that the typical household has their carpets professionally cleaned once or twice a year? And if they entertain a lot, their rugs can be professionally cleaned three or four times a year. Once again, wouldn’t you agree that our rugs should also be vacuumed once or twice a week? This is great, because carpets, especially those in a bedroom, accumulate allergens and can harbor up to 50,000 allergen-producing dust mites.
How often do we have our mattresses and pillows, items with which we have intimate contact eight hours a day, professionally cleaned? We never even clean them ourselves, weekly or every other week! The bedding yes,… but not the mattresses or the pillows.
But do we sleep on our clean, vacuumed carpets? No, at least not normally. We are sane people, who sleep in our beds…our beds, which have NEVER been professionally cleaned, nor have the pillows, on which we rest our heads, been professionally cleaned. So obviously it would be more logical, and even healthier, to sleep on our clean, vacuumed carpets!
Our unhygienic mattresses and unhygienic pillows harbor, on average, 2,000,000 dust mites and sometimes up to 10,000,000 dust mites! Dust mites produce a digestive enzyme so powerful that it breaks down and kills living tissue. This digestive enzyme, called guanine, is excreted as a powerful and very harmful allergen. Dust mites excrete 20 to 30 fecal pellets per day. Doing the math, that’s the equivalent of 40 to 60 million fecal pellets accumulating on our mattress EVERY DAY! Fecal pellets are about 15 microns in size, but as they dry they become powdery and break down into even finer particles. YOU easily inhale these particles when you plump a pillow or toss and turn at night, which happens on average 50 to 60 times a night.
Dust mites are responsible for 80% to 90% of allergenic compounds found in house dust. Although dust mites and dust mite allergens (DMA) can be found throughout the home, the vast majority of dust mites live, thrive and reproduce in the microhabitat of a mattress and a pillow. It’s time to incorporate regular mattress and pillow cleaning into your routine cleaning practices.
In any average home, indoor air quality is now the worst it has ever been and dust mites are the #1 cause of poor indoor air quality. Visit the latest EPA website at: http://www.noattacks.org More facts about indoor air pollution Asthma, “hidden” asthma, perennial rhinitis, bronchitis, sinusitis, eczema, and many more respiratory diseases and skin disorders have INCREASED every year since 1980.
The ACAAI (American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology) has stated that 50% of ALL ILLNESSES are caused or aggravated by poor indoor air quality.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that, on average, the air quality in our homes, schools, workplaces is 2-5 times worse than the air quality outside, and in MANY places much, much worse… 100 to 500 times worse! Really!!!
The EPA has also stated that since the 1980s, children typically spend 90-95% of their time indoors. This is a MUCH higher percentage than when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s when our parents couldn’t keep us inside (regardless of the weather or time of day!).
So how could this have happened throughout the United States? These are just 3 of the main plausible reasons…
1). Energy conservation practices beginning in the late 1970s resulted in newer building construction methods, improved insulation, and more “airtight” structures to maintain indoor temperatures and indoor environments.
The negative impact that structures with less “draught” have presented is the increased accumulation of indoor pollutants, both organic (dust mite allergens, mold, fungi, spores, bacteria, viruses, pet dander and pollutants outdoors (pollen is number 1) transported indoors and inorganic contaminants such as man-made chemicals and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
VOCs emit gases from thousands of products found in a home such as: paints, lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, carpet backing, building materials and furniture, and are also found in schools and workplaces such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless paper, graphic and craft supplies, including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.
Toxic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and waxes contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products. All of these products release chemicals while you use them and, to some extent, when they are stored.
two). Technology has played a negative role. The negative impact that technology has produced is the increase in indoor entertainment. Cable television, computers, interactive games (Play Station, X-Box, etc.) are often the entertainment of choice for school children and young adults. This type of entertainment keeps people indoors instead of outdoors playing games like whiffle ball, jacks, hop scotch, 2-square (or 4-square), tag, Red Rover or even hide and seek…
3). Globalization (the latest “El Niño” as, excuse). While G-zation is pretty cool (shrinking the world leads to the exchange of new ideas, better access for travelers to faraway places, and promoting cultural exchanges). G-zation is also responsible for some negative impacts, some already known such as the bird flu or reinfestation, in the US, of the once nearly extinct bed bug, and additional negative impacts, not yet realized.
Lastly, (and I can’t decide if these are major or minor reasons) I suspect housekeeping practices and how “family life” has changed since the 70’s and 80’s. Divorce between marriages actually became the norm ( it even became a status symbol) unlike the 1960s, the family (or what remained of families) became more mobile and thus left behind the assistance (and knowledge) of members of the extended family (grandmother and grandfather), the divorced mother joined the workforce leaving the household unattended (cleaning became a lower priority), or the household needed BOTH parents to become wage earners, again allowing the Housekeeping suffered, albeit minimally.
Source Control, Attack the #1 Cause of Indoor Allergens
Grandma and grandpa and previous generations knew the importance of mattress cleaning. This was a common spring cleaning ritual back in the days when everyone hung their clothes to dry. Although dust mites weren’t discovered until 1694 (by the inventor of the microscope), they have lived on earth for around 300 million years. When man began to sleep on mattresses, dust mites learned of the new food source provided by humans. This happened about 10,000 years ago and it is no coincidence that mattress cleaning became a normal “cleaning” function about 8,000 years ago.
Health and Well-being begins at home and to experience the best health, it’s time to start sleeping on hygienic mattresses and pillows… or sleeping on clean carpets. If you appreciated this article, you may be interested in other articles written by Tom Hefter.
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