So, you might wonder, why the absurd title?
Well, wouldn’t you agree that the typical home has its carpets professionally cleaned once or twice a year? And if you are entertaining yourself a lot, your rugs can be professionally cleaned three to four times a year. Again, wouldn’t you agree that our rugs are vacuumed once a week, or twice, too? This is great, because carpets, especially those in a bedroom, accumulate allergens and can host 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, not even clean them ourselves, weekly or every other week! Bedding yes, … but not mattresses or pillows.
But do we sleep on our clean and vacuumed rugs? No, at least not normally. We are sane people, who sleep in our beds … our beds, which have NEVER been professionally cleaned, nor the pillows that we lay our heads on, have never been professionally cleaned. So obviously it would be more logical and even healthier to sleep on our clean and vacuumed carpets!
Our unsanitary mattresses and pillows harbor an average of 2,000,000 dust mites and sometimes up to 10,000,000 dust mites! Dust mites produce such a powerful digestive enzyme that it breaks down and kills living tissues. This digestive enzyme, called guanine, is excreted as a powerful and very harmful allergen. Dust moths shed 20 to 30 fecal granules each day. Doing the math, that’s the equivalent of 40 to 60 million fecal granules that accumulate in our mattress EVERY DAY! Fecal granules are about 15 microns in size, but as they dry they become dusty and break down into even finer particles. These particles are then easily inhaled by YOU when laying down a pillow or tossing and turning at night, which, on average, occurs 50 to 60 times per 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 pillow. It’s time to incorporate regularly scheduled mattress and pillow cleaning into routine cleaning practices.
In any average home, indoor air quality is now the worst of all, and dust mites are the number one cause of poor indoor air quality. Visit EPA’s latest 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 Allergies, Asthma and Immunology) has stated that 50% of ALL ILLNESSES are caused or aggravated by poor indoor air quality.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that, on average, the air quality in our homes, schools, workplaces is 2 to 5 times worse than the outdoor air quality and in MANY places much Much worse … like 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 indoors (regardless of the weather or the time of day!).
So how could this have happened across America? Here are just 3 of the top plausible reasons …
1). Energy conservation practices that began in the late 1970s resulted in newer building construction methods, better insulation, and more “airtight” structures to maintain indoor temperatures and indoor environments.
The negative impact of structures with less “drafts” is the increase in the accumulation of indoor pollutants, both organic (allergens from dust mites, molds, fungi, spores, bacteria, viruses, pet dander and outdoor pollutants (pollen is number 1) carried indoors and inorganic pollutants like man-made chemicals and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
VOCs emit gases from thousands of products found in the home, such as: paints, lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, carpet backing, building materials, and furniture, and are also found in schools and venues. such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and copy paper, graphics and carbonless craft supplies, including glues and adhesives, permanent markers and photo solutions.
Toxic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and waxes contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreaser, and hobby products. All of these products release chemical compounds while you use them and, to some extent, when they are stored.
2). Technology has played a negative role. The negative impact that technology has produced is the increase in indoor entertainment. Cable TV, computers, interactive games (Play Station, X-Box, etc.) are often the entertainment of choice for school-age children and young adults. This type of entertainment keeps people indoors instead of playing outside games like whiffle ball, jacks, hop scotch, 2-square (or 4-square), tag, Red Rover or even hide and seek …
3). Globalization (the last one as “El Niño”, excuse me). While G-zation is pretty good (shrinking the world leads to sharing new ideas, better access for travelers to faraway places, and promoting cultural exchanges). The g-zation is also responsible for some negative impacts, some already known as bird flu or reinfestation, in the US, from bed bugs that were once nearly extinct and other 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 70s and 80s. Divorce between marriages actually became the norm ( even a status symbol) unlike in the 1960s, the family (or what was left of families) became more mobile and thus left behind the assistance (and knowledge) of family members extended (grandmother and grandfather). Divorced mothers joined the workforce leaving the home unattended (household chores became less of a priority), or the household needed BOTH parents to become wage earners, again allowing household chores to suffer, albeit minimally .
Source control, attack the number one cause of indoor allergens
Grandma and Grandpa and previous generations knew the importance of cleaning mattresses. This was a common spring cleaning ritual in the days when everyone hung up their clothes to dry. Although dust mites were not discovered until 1694 (by the inventor of the microscope), they have lived on earth for about 300 million years. When man began sleeping on mattresses, dust mites learned of the new food source provided by humans. This happened around 10,000 years ago and it is no coincidence that mattress cleaning became a normal “cleaning” function around 8,000 years ago.
Health and wellness begins at home, and to experience your best health, it’s time to start sleeping on hygienic mattresses and pillows again … or sleeping on clean rugs. If you appreciated this article, you may be interested in other articles written by Tom Hefter.
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