How Decreasing Home Mud Improves Our Well being
I would like to take you on a journey into the world of the microscope. A world in our world that the naked human eye cannot see.
It is still a world that dramatically affects our lives. A world that is terrifying and incredibly beautiful at the same time.
The recent drama of global panic over a virus so small we cannot see it opens our eyes to the dangers of the tiny world of viruses and pathogens.
These things are so tiny that throughout history they have escaped human control, and debate rages on whether or not we will ever control them.
Once you become familiar with the microscopic nature of such things, you will find that wearing a mask to stop a microscopic virus is like trying to stop a mustard seed with a farmer's wooden fence.
Let's talk about dust
Viruses are just one of many microscopic things that can dramatically affect humans. Most of them we have only very limited control in practical reality.
This article aims to talk about an even more common and far less themed microscopic topic that we can thankfully do something about to dramatically improve our health. It is dust, and especially ordinary house dust.
We want to look at the effects dust can have on the health and wellbeing of the people who live with it. This is practically everyone living under one roof on the planet.
How big is dust
Dust particles vary in size. The dust we are talking about is so small that you can only see it if it clumps together on an open surface in your home.
You can recognize it individually when it glitters in a ray of sunlight when the light is reflected from it. The size can range from half a micron to 100 microns.
A micron is a millionth of a meter. To give you an idea of the scale, we're going to start high and end low.
100 micrometers thick of a standard paper
70-30 micrometers in circumference of a human hair
40 micron visibility threshold for naked eyes
25 micrometers in diameter of a white blood cell
10 microns the size of the typical adult house dust mite
8 microseconds in diameter of a red blood cell
2 micrometers in diameter of cocci bacteria
0.5 micron diameter of the Bacillus bacteria
0.1 micron diameter of the coronavirus
0.1-0.5 nanometers in diameter of a typical atom
(A nanometer is a billionth of a meter)
If you are still reading you will get an idea of the stunning sizes we are talking about here. Once you get to the atomic level, things really start to get the mind puzzled.
We can leave this level of infinitesimal smallness for another time and perhaps for a follow-up article.
What is a typical house dust particle?
Photo by Vinicius Wiesehofer from Pixabay
The average person should shed a full teaspoon of dead skin every week. These dead human skin flakes are a favorite food of house dust mites.
In addition to human dander, dust mites and their feces, we often find things like human hair, insect parts, animal hair, microscopic plastics and other fibers, pollen from plants, mold spores, micro-pollution, aerosols and a variety of tiny contaminants, including exhaust fumes and aerosols and various tiny ones Things; matters; some benign and some toxic.
Why is dust so harmful?
Whether you have allergies or not, most people will feel the negative effects of spending too much time indoors.
Most of us are sensitive enough to feel nauseous in places this humid. With allergy sufferers and higher sensitivities, the effect is usually much worse, since asthma, eczema, dizziness, dry throat, eye pain, itching, sneezing and constipation, and a general malaise are typical symptoms.
Over time, our immune systems can weaken and open the door to other diseases.
House dust mite poos typically contain undigested enzymes from human dander, which they happily consume. These tiny fragments can get into our lungs and cause mild to significant irritation.
Shortening the dust mite breeding cycle is crucial. When you reduce the food supply and overall dust levels in your home, you can expect immediate relief from the above symptoms.
Why is it so hard to get rid of the dust?
Photo of the Austrian National Library by Unsplash
This microscopic dust is very difficult to remove. Not only is it so small that it floats, but it is also subject to static electricity phenomenon if you try to remove it using traditional cleaning methods.
This positive charge we put on these tiny particles can actually help the fine particles to float in the air indoors for up to five days.
That is why thin layers of dust often collect on open surfaces in the days after our cleaning efforts.
Therefore, an imperceptible dust mist appears in most modern homes, which is unknown to residents.
This fog seems to be thickest when there is a lot of movement and starts to calm down a bit when the house is silent for days and weeks, but it is easy to disturb.
What can your average household do about it?
The best step for the modern home is to understand how dust behaves and have a plan for it.
The first crucial step is to recognize that it is swimming in typical conditions and negate that by using an ionizer when cleaning with the doors and windows closed to minimize drafts and allow the dust to settle before cleaning.
This helps working overtime to ensure that the positive static electricity charge attached to the particle is negated by the negative ionic charge and the dust falls on the open surfaces and on the floor much faster.
Now that the dust is no longer floating so strongly, we can collect it with our vacuum cleaner. Make sure your vacuum cleaner is equipped with a HEPA filter and use microfiber mops and towels.
Particularly thick areas of dust should be approached with a damp cloth. It's hard to get all of the dust in one fell swoop It is a process.
The law of dust reduction returns
Less and less dust is removed with each further cleaning, which drastically reduces the dust mist in the home over time, as less and less dust remains.
To do this well, the best thing to do is to keep the house really quiet, reducing through traffic, and doing a minimum of physical exercise while cleaning in the initial stages when the dust is at its worst.
Once most of the dust is removed, you can use a feather duster to vigorously remove all of the hidden dust in the nooks and crannies.
This will take some time and is a law of decrease in return process that will help you remove less and less dust from a house that has less and less dust every time.
The final step is to just breathe and enjoy.
About the author:
Michael Sweet is the founder of 1800 CLEANER and has more than 30 years of professional cleaning experience.
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