Do Air Purifiers Reduce Dust in a Home?

Dust can develop and spread both indoors and outdoors, in your office and cars – and most commonly in your home. When you find dust in your personal indoor environment, particularly in large quantities, this can start the adverse health effects in many occupants that are triggered by allergens such as dust and the dust mites that are produced from this allergen in the home. Cleaning dust of the surfaces of your home can be very easy to do, however, when it comes to reducing and eliminating dust in the air of your home the use of an air purifier might be your greatest resource.

In this article we are going to learn more about dust growth in your home, what causes dust to grow in these indoor environments, and will air purifiers help to reduce dust in the air of your home.

What is Household Dust

Every minute of every day, household dust will develop and collect within the indoor space of your home – including nooks and crannies, as well as in the air of this air space. Dust is a known allergen that will brew within the walls of a home, and the reason for this development can vary depending on the household and the conditions in this space. The composition of household dust is more than just dirt present in the environment, it can also consist of a mix of skin cells shed from the human body, hair, clothing fibers, bacteria, dust mites, bits of dead bugs, soil particles, pollen, and microscopic specks of plastic, and other pollutants present in the home – according to C & EN.

How does dust form? This dust accumulation that collects and gathers in the home will come from the continual sources present in a home – and this dust will show on the surfaces of your home and eventually in the air of this indoor space. Eventually dust will get resuspended when it becomes disturbed and this will allow for the dust to become recirculated throughout the house. During this recirculation process of dust in the air, this will increase the potential of exposure to occur in residents in this space and this can lead to adverse health reactions – especially in those with asthma and/or allergies.

Where Does Dust Come from in a Closed Room

Every homeowner has experienced dust in their home, whether that be traces of dust on their window ledge, on their countertops, or even seeing traces of dust suspended in the air. Believe it or not, dust forms from the occupants present in the home including items used by people in a home or even brought into the home from outside sources that collect on your clothes or personal items. In addition to humans being a source of dust development in a home, there will be other sources in a home that will lead to dust in this indoor space.

Where does dust come from, especially in a closed room? As we discussed previously, human skin will be shed from a person and their pieces of skin cells will form in the dust in your home. Humans will shed their skin all day every day, by lightly scratching their arm or leg, or even in their bed or on soft surfaces where the skin will shed onto as they are on these surfaces. Clothing, furniture, carpeting, and other materials in a home can also be a source of dust in an indoor space. The fibers in these materials will shed off when they are washed, worn, or used in the indoor space – these released fibers from these items in a home will allow for the formation of dust. Lastly, other living inhabitants and guests can make dust in a home as well. Dust mites love to eat shed skin in a home, and these microscopic creatures will fester on this skin and ultimately the dust in this space. These microscopic mites will collect in warm and dark spaces, like your bed, and as these bugs grow, they shed the hard carapace that covers their body which will form into household dust.

Dust Particle Size

The size of dust particles in your home can be a complex pollutant to measure, especially when it is in the air of this indoor space. Measuring airborne pollutants can give a lot of insight into the potential dangers that these pollutants can hold in the environment, especially as occupants in this space become exposed to them in the air. Airborne pollutants such as allergens will be measured using microns, which is a unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter – which is used in many technological and scientific fields. Microns are expressed with the symbol µm that represents the micron has been used by the air purification industry to show how small a particle is in the air.

When discussing the dust particle size in the air, it has been found that these dust particles will range in size from 1 to 100 µm (microns), according to the World Health Organization. When it comes to quantifying the size of microns, to help put micron size in perspective, the thickness of a human hair is about 100 microns. Therefore, dust can be similar in size to a strand of human hair or even smaller, which can be alarming when it comes to human exposure to this allergen in the air – especially inhalation or ingestion of it in the air.

Household Dust Health Effects

Dust particles that are present in a home can become potentially aggravating and will lead to health effects in those individuals that are exposed to this allergen that suffer from certain conditions such as asthma and allergies. The adverse impact to human health from dust pollutants in an indoor space can vary based on the amount of dust present in the air of this environment and how long you have been exposed to this allergen in the air space. Individuals who suffer from respiratory conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive airways disease (COAD) or emphysema can be greatly impacted by dust exposure in their indoor spaces – and will lead to a worsening of their symptoms in many cases, according to the Department of Health of Western Australia. In addition, those with asthma and allergies can also be at an increased risk of dust exposure symptoms since dust in high concentrations can reduce lung function and make it difficult to breathe for asthmatic sufferers and exacerbated symptoms for allergy sufferers.

According to Mayo Clinic, those individuals who are sensitive or allergic to dust mites will experience various health effects and symptoms during exposure to these allergens. These symptoms will include the following;

• Sneezing
• Runny nose
• Itchy, red or watery eyes
• Nasal congestion
• Itchy nose, roof of mouth or throat
• Postnasal drip
• Cough
• Facial pressure and pain
• Swollen, blue-colored skin under your eyes

How to Remove Excessive Dust in House

Dust accumulation in your home, especially in excessive amounts, can have a direct effect on many factors in your home, including indoor air quality and occupant health. As dust buildups on the surfaces and the air of a home it can lead to adverse health effects to those individuals in the environment that are sensitive to this allergen, particularly in large quantities of exposure in the environment. When dust starts to become a problem in your home, there can be several methods and solutions that can be integrated into this indoor space to help alleviate and mitigate the dust in the environment. Below we are going to discuss the best solutions to implement into your home for excessive dust removal on the surfaces and in the air.

1. Clean Bed Sheets Weekly: Dust and dust mites love to live within the sheets, pillow, and mattress of your bed – due to the high levels of skin that are shed in this space of your home. Thus, it is necessary to wash your sheets frequently to remove the potential dust and dust mites in these materials – usually a weekly washing of the sheets and pillows will be sufficient to remove dust.
2. Declutter Floors: It is easy to allow for clutter to occur on your floors, whether that be a pile of clothes, toys, books, or other items that you will throw onto the surface. This excessive clutter on your floors will allow for dust production in your home, and therefore it will be important to declutter and remove these areas to minimize dust production.
3. Avoid Carpet in Home: Carpeting is a great option for flooring in a home, it is pretty and inexpensive, however, this flooring material will be a great source of dust buildup in a home. The fibers in carpeting will gladly collect dust and will eventually become one of the largest sources of dust in a home. If you have carpeting it is important to vacuum this flooring regularly, sometimes daily, to remove the dust and prevent dust buildup in a home.
4. Wipe Down Surfaces: Dust will spread throughout the air in an indoor space and eventually will settle onto the various surfaces in this environment. As the dust settles, it will require a deep cleaning and wiping of surfaces contaminated by dust, usually with a rag or microfiber towel that will easily pick up this allergen from the surface. This is an easy but effective method to minimizing dust in an indoor environment.
5. Air Purifiers for Dust Removal: Dust will easily become suspended in the air and as this airborne allergen floats in the air it can becomes unconsciously ingested or inhaled into the human body of occupants in this indoor environment. Allergy or asthma sufferers will greatly be affected by airborne dust and this can elicit a bout of symptoms that will become aggravating to the occupants in this space. When this occurs, it may be necessary to invest in an air purifier for dust removal in the air.

Best Air Purifier for Dust Removal

Air purifiers are air cleaning devices that work to properly filter the indoor air of pollutants such as dust particles that can be present in the air of this space that is circulating in your home. Air cleaners will all work differently and utilize specific filtration methods to accomplish this air cleaning in the environment – some use carbon, ionization, ozone, and other proprietary technologies to give it its filtration capabilities. Dust is a small allergen that is not only easily found floating in the air, but it is also a pollutant that can be hard to capture due to its smaller size. Thus, it is crucial to find an air purifier that can efficiently filter out these pollutants from the indoor air of your home.

When it comes to integrating an air purifier into your dust-filled home, the technology and filtration used in an air purifier will be critically important to the success of the air purifier in removing the airborne dust in the air. The EnviroKlenz Air Purifier is a great addition for any home struggling with excessive dust levels in the indoor space – due to the advanced technology of EnviroKlenz combined with the use of a hospital-grade HEPA filter. HEPA filter material utilizes a dense media filter that provides the capability to capture and contain small particulate matter, 0.3 microns are larger– including allergens such as dust in the air. This dense HEPA filter will effectively work as a second-stage filtration in the EnviroKlenz Air Purifier, allowing it to work continually as air is pushed through the filter to capture these fine particulate matters for up to 2 years of use in the purification system. Therefore, allowing the EnviroKlenz Air Purifier to be a great resource in your home for the mitigation and ultimate removal of dust and dust particles from the air for good!

Article Sources:

1. C&EN: Tracing the Chemistry of Household Dust (link)
2. World Health Organization (WHO): Hazard Prevention and Control in the Work Environment: Airborne Dust (link)
3. Government of Western Australia Department of Health: Health Effects of Dust (link)
4. Mayo Clinic: Dust Mite Allergy (link)