Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What Lies Beneath our Sheets? Secrets to remove dust mites from our home

Lots of people go to bed feeling perfectly fine and wake up either during the middle of the night or in the morning with a stuffy nose, dry throat and even congestion in their chest. What people don’t realize is that what’s most likely causing these problems is what lies beneath their sheets. DUST MITES!!!
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According to the University of Nebraska dust mite feces are known to cause “allergies include sneezing, itchy, watery eyes, nasal stuffiness, runny nose, stuffy ears, respiratory problems, eczema and (in severe cases) asthma.”

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY REMOVE THESE CRITTERS FROM YOUR HOME

VACUUM: What can be done to help rid your home of these unwanted visitors? According to studies done at the University of Texas vacuuming your mattress and other upholstered furniture will certainly help. Remember to buy a vacuum with HEPA filtration so you are sure the feces will remain in the vacuum cleaner and not come back into your air stream. HEPA filters are known to trap the smallest pollutants and particulants at 99.97% efficiency at .3 microns in size. HEPA filters are used in all types of applications where clean air is needed such as inside hospitals and airplanes.  I can also reccomend central vacuum cleanersas these units will have the dust swept into a cannister located in a garage or furnace room, you can always get a central vacuum with a HEPA filter, or just add a HEPA filter to the muffler.

DUSTING: It’s a good idea to dust your furniture before you vacuum. Using a damp cloth works better and “spraying furniture polish/dusting liquid directly on surface reduces airborne particles by 93 percent compared with dry dusting.” (University of Nebraska)

AIR FILTRATION: Another effective way to remove dust mite feces from your air is to invest in a HEPA filtration system. Don’t get fooled into buying an OZONE generating machine or an IONIZZER as these units will not effectively remove the smaller sized particulants which dust mites and their feces are. Check out what Dr. Siegel of the University of Texas has to say here http://www.utexas.edu/news/2005/09/15/engineering/

Essentially if you want to rid your home of the second leading cause of allergies and asthma (Pollen is first) you would be well advised to invest in a HEPA filter. You can also go a step further and invest in a HEPA filter that uses a UV light and titanium dioxide. This type of unit will create a process call Photocatalytic Oxidation and instead of capturing dust mites in the HEPA filter median will actually kill the mites on impact with the catalyst.

So there you are 3 effective ways to rid your home of the problems associated with dust mites.


If you have any questions or comments please feel free to use the comments section.

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