House Dusts Can Be Silent Killers, Study Says

Housedusts can be deadly. A study reports that 90 percent of dust samples that were studied from houses in 14 states have harmful chemicals, which includes ones that can lead to cancer.

The chemicals laced in to the house dusts are typically unnoticed and everyone who lives in the house is in danger of getting sickness over time. "We wanted to be able to draw more solid conclusions about concentrations of indoor chemicals in the U.S. by pooling data across all of these studies," said study's lead author Ami Zota from Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Zota further explained that the chemicals goes to the air and then seep into solid dust, mattes and then settles on furniture, appliance, floors and even on the remote control. The inhalation or ingestion of these small particles or even absorption through the skin can be very dangerous.

The Washington Toxics Coalition tested household dust and they found flame-retardant chemicals in all samples. The conclusion given is that the higher exposures to flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), the higher is the possibility for decreased fertility because the chemicals can alter the normal functioning of thyroid hormones.

Some nearly dangerous common components that are in household dust are shed human skin cells, paint particles, cigarette smokes, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), pet feathers, rodent waste, pollen, heavy metals like lead and mercury, asbestos, mold pores, and a lot more. Some experts highly advice not to use a lot of things inside the house where dust can settle in, like carpets for example. It is also ideal to clean the house everyday.

Americans use 87 percent of their time in enclosed buildings and then 6 percent of their time in enclosed vehicles, according to the National Human Activity Pattern Survey. Everyone is virtually exposed to dusts that are of great threat to health. Because of this, a careless American does not look at the dust bunny as something that is not valuable at all, knowing that house dust is actually a silent killer.