Earlier this week I wrote a short facebook post about what’s really in those delightful little “dust bunnies” we all have
accumulating in different corners of our houses, and it has prompted me to
expand this desperately boring but important subject out a bit, to explain why the
substance of dust is such a significant threat to human health, why we need to
take more notice of it, and why - while tedious and tiresome - maintaining a
dust-free environment is really important to our well being.
Dust is something that most of us generally do notice
but don’t really want to think too much about.
That light, talcum-powdery coating we find on the furniture, nestling in
nooks and crannies, and lurking on the architraves simply translates to work, and
most of us would rather use the time we’d typically spend getting rid of it in
a far more enjoyable way. Perfectly
understandable - after all, it’s not too difficult to ignore what we think of
as a minor irritant, in preference to foregoing a meeting for coffee with a
friend, spending time with the kids, or getting on with that blog we have to
write!
But dust is not quite as
benign or innocuous as we’d like to think.
As the subject of significant and
intense scientific research and analysis, general household dust has been found
to contain a worrying accumulation of deeply unpleasant ingredients, and while
specific composition does vary by location, the overall analysis suggests that wherever it happens to be, it is in fact a significant threat to human health. Dust
mites, for example, produce allergens that are well-documented “triggers” for
people suffering from asthma and their presence can be enough to start the disease in
those who haven’t previously had it.
The specific dust mix in
any household varies with the climate, the age of the house, the number of
people who live in it and the types of pets they have, along with their
cleaning, cooking, personal hygiene and smoking habits. Commonly, the average
dust combination contains dead human skin, animal fur, dried mould spores, the decomposing
faeces and bodies of insects, ash, food debris, lint and organic fibres from
clothes, bedding and other fabrics (such as wool), tracked-in soil, soot,
particles from smoking and cooking, and, rather worryingly, chemical and metal
particles such as lead (e.g. from vehicle exhaust fumes), arsenic (e.g. from nicotine,
airborne volcanic dust and dust from mining and burning coal) and ingredients
used in crop sprays and garden fertilizers.
Dust in the home can be absorbed into carpets, curtains and rugs and can
remain there for long periods of time, as can powdered forms of residue from the
chemicals present from home cleaning, DIY activity, and smoking.
Would we voluntarily
snort any of that? Erm... nope.
But here’s the thing –
that’s exactly what we’re doing! We are actually
breathing in these airborne particles BEFORE they settle on the surfaces in our
homes. Whenever we open a window to
invite the fresh air in, we also unwittingly invite in all these things that
make their presence felt in the form of the dust we try to ignore, and since
the ingredients all have different effects on different people they pose
different risks to health. Children are
particularly at risk of compromised health from dust and its ingredients, as
they often play on the floor where it tends to accumulate, and they routinely
transfer any bacteria on their hands directly to their mouths.
As our lives tend to get
busier and there is less and less time available to meet our obligations, housework
often tends to slide as we seek to enjoy the quality time that gives us the much-needed
balance between work and play. It’s a
hard enough balance to strive for at the best of times. Outsourcing your
domestic cleaning is a sensible option to ensure that a healthy home environment
can be maintained in a way that doesn't stretch you to the absolute limit of
your own capability and time. It’s easy
to put a price on having your house cleaned, but a lot harder to quantify the
cost of compromised health or lost quality time. One of my customers put it in a nutshell when
she first hired Darlings Who Do. She
said that she is incredibly busy running a business, her house needs cleaning, and
her beautiful little boy was growing up and she and her partner didn't want to miss
a moment of the time they could have with him.
The logical compromise in her busy life was outsourcing the domestic cleaning. It made more sense to her than anything
else. Now, having domestic support is simply a part of her weekly housekeeping costs.
There’s absolutely no
need to be unduly paranoid about dust in the home. It is, after all, part of everyday
life, and our homes can never really be entirely free of it. But there are ways
to reduce it and minimize its accumulation.
Regularly cleaning it from floors and other surfaces in your home (or
car or office) will enhance the environment you live in and will significantly reduce
the risks it poses to your own and your family’s health, especially if its done the way WE do it - without the use of harsh, unnecessary chemicals that raise important questions about whether clean is always healthy! Outsourcing this most mundane of tasks also gives you back your quality time – and that’s something you can’t put any
kind of price on.
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