Where does dust come from and how to deal with it. Where does dust come from indoors?
Is dust constantly accumulating in your apartment, even though you regularly carry out wet cleaning there? Do you want to know why this happens and whether it is possible to cope with this phenomenon? To find answers to these questions, let's figure out where the dust in the apartment comes from.
First you need to understand what dust is in the house. In fact, these are the smallest solid particles, measuring up to 0.01 microns. Depending on the size of the particles, they can immediately settle on the surface or float in the air for some time (which is typical for particles ranging in size from 10 to 50 microns).
Since such particles easily attract various harmful compounds, they can be extremely dangerous for human body. Greatest harm they are capable of harming people living in environmentally unfavorable regions with high level radiation or with a large number of factories chemical industry. There are such fine particles can cause various serious illnesses lungs, skin and other organs and systems.
There are many sources of formation of such dust particles on earth. These are erupting volcanoes, seas, mountains, arable lands. IN last years Human life also produces a lot of dust particles, in particular, the work of enterprises, construction, the automotive industry and other areas. Some of the dust in the air is made up of cosmic particles.
However, almost all of the presented types of dust are very little represented in the composition of household dust, which many of us are actively struggling with. Let's look at what is included in it.
Where does dust come from in residential areas?
Sources of formation of microscopic solid particles in modern residential buildings also several. Dust contains various substances. Among them:
- Particles of various materials: fibers of furniture, glass, fragments of wall and ceiling decoration. This type of dust grains has a very small percentage in its overall structure.
- Pet hair. This part of the dust particles is produced in small quantities, regardless of what type and breed of animal you keep in your home.
- Living organisms, including dust mites, brought into the apartment with food or on animal fur. It is this component that many people are allergic to. This type of dust particles makes up approximately 80% of the total and is the most dangerous to humans.
- Human epidermal cells. This component makes up a small part of the dust particles (usually no more than 5%), since the stratum corneum is mostly washed off during showering.
Video: where does dust come from?
Important: the process of dust formation of all types presented in any living space occurs continuously, and it is almost impossible to influence it by any external measures. That is why many people who thoroughly clean their homes are constantly faced with the fact that within just 24 hours a new layer of dust particles forms on the surfaces.
It is also necessary to remember that some of the dust enters living spaces from outside. For example, it can penetrate through open windows during ventilation, it is carried into the house on the soles of shoes, outerwear, and also on the paws of your pets. It is for this reason that those people who live in areas with unfavorable environmental conditions have to spend much more time cleaning. In normal regions, this part of the dust will be insignificant compared to the amount of dust produced in the apartment.
Where does the most dust accumulate in the apartment?
There are several places where house dust accumulates in a living space. In a sleeping room these are usually pillows, blankets, and a mattress. In the living room, the dust collector is usually upholstered furniture, toys, as well as all kinds of collections of things: dishes, figurines, paintings, etc. In the kitchen, places where microscopic solid particles accumulate are household appliances: hood, refrigerator, TV.
Video: fighting dust in an apartment:
A significant portion of dust mites, fragments of epidermis and fur in residential buildings also accumulate in areas that are difficult to reach for cleaning and among scattered things. It is for this reason that in those apartments where cleaning is carried out quite regularly, the layer of dust will increase more slowly than in houses where complete disorder reigns.
Where does dust come from in rooms where no one lives?
If the appearance of a dusty layer in a residential building or apartment is most closely related to human life, then how to figure out where it comes from in the rooms into which long years no one comes in. After all, it is known that in closed houses, apartments, and abandoned factories, dust also constantly accumulates.
In fact, determining where dust may come from indoors is not that difficult. The fact is that some dust particles, even while a person lives or works in such a place, remain not on surfaces, but in the air. It may settle gradually, which may take several days and sometimes weeks.
A certain amount of dust particles will constantly form from various surfaces: ceilings, walls, windows. It is currently impossible to stop their formation. Also, some of the dirt in such rooms is produced by dust mites, invisible to the human eye. Since their number in any, even perfectly cleaned apartment is quite large, the layer of dust due to their fault will grow steadily and at a fairly high rate.
Is it possible to get rid of dust?
Knowing where the dust in an apartment comes from, we can say with confidence that humanity cannot in any way influence the process of its formation. Even with regular cleaning of the house and giving up pets, it is extremely difficult to reduce the amount of dust in the premises: it will still accumulate in such places all the time.
The only thing you can do if you think that this type of pollution can significantly affect your health is to eliminate places where dust particles accumulate in your home or pay as much attention to them as possible during cleaning. Such places can be: upholstered furniture with decorative pillows, carpets, soft toys. It is in such things that dust mites and other microscopic organisms most often accumulate. To get rid of them, it is recommended to replace old furniture with new ones and always clean such products thoroughly using a vacuum cleaner or other modern instruments for cleaning.
Regular care of plants, as well as compliance with the rules for storing things in closets, helps to significantly reduce the number of dust particles in the room. The use of special sealed bags, bags for dresses, suits and especially outerwear - all these are measures by which you can reduce the amount of dust in your own apartment in just a few weeks and significantly simplify the cleaning process for yourself in the future.
Video: how to deal with dust:
What is dust?
Dust is microscopic particles of various substances; their size is so small that it is almost impossible to notice them with the naked eye.
In most cases, the components of dust are the following components: exfoliated cells of the epidermis, human hair or animal fur, various contaminants that fall from the street into open windows and doors, carried on people’s shoes or clothes, etc.
Dust particles that accumulate on the surface of furniture, on various upholstered furniture, carpets and rugs can easily mix with the air. People and animals, moving around the apartment, create air movement and, without realizing it, contribute to dust in the room.
Why does the dust lie in a layer in some places or form whole lumps? The answer to this question is quite simple: despite the fact that the dust particles are quite small, over time they collide with each other, settle in the same place and seem to stick together. Over time, a rather heavy suspension is formed, which is no longer easy to float through the air, and it settles in some inaccessible place; over time, other particles are added to this dust lump, forming entire dust deposits.
Many people consider dust as an integral attribute of a living space. In fact, dust is very insidious, it contains various fungi, bacteria, pathogenic microbes, and in especially severe cases, dust mites can appear, and in the presence of pets, also worm eggs.
During breathing, these microparticles are drawn in along with the air into nasal cavity, some of the largest dust particles are retained by the mucous membrane, while the rest enter the lungs and can cause various diseases.
How to get rid of dust?
Of course, it is impossible to stop the process of dust formation, but you need to try to slow it down slightly, thereby reducing Negative consequences to a minimum. Daily wet cleaning, cleaning and beating of carpets, proper and timely care of pets, etc. will help get rid of dust.
Regular general cleaning is a guarantee that there will be a minimum of dust in the living space, but let’s try to figure out how to do the cleaning correctly.
It is best to start cleaning from the ceiling; you need to remove all cobwebs and accumulated dust particles; this is best done with a damp cloth. Don't ignore walls and moldings. If wall coverings are not intended for wet cleaning, then it is most convenient to use a small vacuum cleaner. By the way, don’t forget to shake the bag out of the vacuum cleaner in time, otherwise it will spit out some of the dust back into the air. Carpets and rugs must also be vacuumed before wet cleaning.
Bedding should be shaken out and dried from time to time. fresh air to prevent dust and dust mites from accumulating in the fluff of pillows and blankets.
When cleaning the apartment, it is advisable to move away all moving furniture and wipe back sides, as well as the walls to which this furniture is moved. You need to finish cleaning the room by washing the floors.
Neat and clean housewives are always bothered by dust. No matter how they fight it, no matter how many times a day they wipe it, but after some time a thin layer of dust is deposited on the surfaces in the house again. This concerns the visible enemy. But there is also micro dust, invisible to the human eye, which is all around us.
- Where does dust come from at home?
- What does it consist of?
- What is the danger of dust for the human body?
Where does house dust come from?
Our ordinary "house" dust examined under a powerful microscope is cocktail of various (organic and inorganic) substances. Here you can find small food crumbs, animal hairs and fur, thin fibers of paper and fabric, plant pollen, various fungi, mold and even the remains and active waste products of microscopic dust mites, which are also called saprophytes. From this entire “set” and our “household” dust consists.
It is absolutely clear that nothing pleasant or useful can be found in house dust.
Now, about as for the harm from it. The smallest particles of this dust can clog the upper Airways person, deposit in the lungs and cause allergic reactions, as well as a prolonged and causeless cough, classical methods Treatments for which give absolutely no results.
Therefore, one of the first methods of treating allergies (when the causative agent of the allergen is not precisely identified) is to create a hypoallergenic zone for the allergic person. People suffering from allergies are advised to avoid and eliminate the presence of carpets, woolen items, soft toys, furniture with fabric upholstery (it is recommended to replace it with leather), get rid of pets, replace ordinary fabric curtains with blinds, and clean more often. This is where we come to the most interesting part. Any cleaning, of course, cannot be done without using a vacuum cleaner, which is considered to be the main the enemy of dust in our home. But..
Does a vacuum cleaner really get rid of dust?
The design of a conventional household vacuum cleaner is quite simple and predictable. The air, along with dust, is sucked into the vacuum cleaner, passes through a special cleaning filter, debris particles settle in special garbage compartments, and the air is driven through special cooling systems, then this air passes through another filter and finally ends up back in our room. But there is one significant nuance here - The volume of air that is cleaned depends on the degree of filter contamination. If the draft suddenly stops and just as suddenly resumes, the entire contents of the filter enter the room from the outlet of our vacuum cleaner. And this is ours with you house dust. The same thing happens when you turn the vacuum cleaner on and off.
A very clear picture emerges that our The main assistant in the fight against dust, it cleans only surfaces, periodically throwing back all accumulated and heated dust into the air in the room. Remember how often after you finished vacuuming, an unpleasant specific smell appeared in the room. This is exactly it - The vacuum cleaner collected dust in order to “throw it away” again.
When the thrust of our assistant sharply decreases, this is a signal that it is necessary to change (or clean) the filter. Anytime The vacuum cleaner filter is a real incubator for breeding mold, germs, and mites.
Well, what about modern vacuum cleaners with water filters? Do they have a slightly different operating principle? The operating principle is, of course, different, but this does not mean that it is absolutely harmless. Let's look at the operating principle of vacuum cleaners with a water filter. The purpose of a water filter is to allow house dust particles to settle into this liquid, in our case water. But,
the water in such a water filter copes with retaining only large particles of dust, but small particles of our house dust successfully pass through the water filtration system, are enriched there with mold spores (which have chosen such an unusual, but very comfortable place to live), and then, together with the warm and humid air they again enter our room. It turns out kind of inevitable dust cycle in nature with the participation and help of a vacuum cleaner.
Such warm and humid dusty air does its job perfectly and infects everything around it. dangerous fungus. In addition, from the technical side, such vacuum cleaners with water filters are not very durable in their operation, because the moisture that gets into the engine does not add days to the service life of your vacuum cleaner, and often we don’t have the time to do washing the filter and drying it after regular cleaning.
It turns out vicious circle: house dust – vacuum cleaner – house dust.
But, after all, we have to somehow fight dust if our assistant, the vacuum cleaner, is not our partner in this matter?
Perhaps these electrons -
Worlds with five continents
Arts, knowledge, wars, thrones,
And the memory of forty centuries...
Today I shake out the bag from the vacuum cleaner and am horrified - how much DUST there is in there! And where does it come from... I have a question - there is the Internet, I’ve read it, I’ll tell you now.
Dust - fine solids organic or mineral origin. Dust is particles with an average diameter of 0.005 mm and a maximum diameter of 0.1 mm. Larger particles convert the material into the category of sand, which ranges in size from 0.1 to 1 mm. When exposed to moisture, dust usually turns into dirt.
Dust is a mysterious thing. No matter how much you remove it, it still accumulates. Where? You go on vacation, having previously washed the entire apartment until it shines, tightly locking the windows and doors, and when you return, you find deposits of house dust on the floor! Miracles and nothing more!
Truly miracles, if you also know what it is. By the way, in our house in the dust you can find... sands of the Sahara Desert, ash from the Japanese volcano Sakurajima, salt from the Pacific Ocean, microparticles of soil from near Voronezh and many other interesting things.
Tens of millions of tons of dust settle in Russia every year. Seventy percent of it is born by nature, and the remaining thirty by man. This is mainly waste from the combustion of mineral fuels - oil, gas, coal, wood. But we are not talking about them; with them everything is more or less clear. So, the most significant source of natural dust is soil. Particles of earth blown by the winds rise high into the sky and are transported for many hundreds of kilometers.
Ocean dust - small crystals of salts thrown into the air by the seas - comes in second place. Of course, it is not the crystals themselves that enter the atmosphere, but the smallest droplets of water that arise when air bubbles rising from the bottom of reservoirs are agitated and destroyed. (By the way, this is why the air near the seas seems salty and smells of algae). The drops dry instantly, and the air is saturated with salts. Just like soil particles, the crystals rise high above the ground and float in conjunction with water vapor in the form of clouds.
Volcanoes and large forest fires are other significant sources of dust. Moreover, as you understand, not only volcanoes erupt, but also smoke and are in an inactive period of life. There are hundreds of such “smoking pipes” all over the planet. Thus, the slowly smoking Sakurajima volcano (Japan, Kyushu island) annually “rewards” humanity with 14 million tons of dust. The nearby town of Kagoshima is considered the dustiest in the world: its streets, no matter how hard the hardworking Japanese street cleaners try, are always covered with a layer of dust and ash.
Finally, deserts do not leave us unattended. For example, the huge Sahara, from 60 to 200 million tons of dust of which settles every year in the mountains of Central America, is deposited in the cities of Russia, England, and distant Australia. Don't be surprised, but your house dust may contain any of the samples listed above! And also... cosmic dust falling on the planet along with meteor showers, pollen, fungi, spores, animal hair and human hair, rubber dust from abraded tires, fibers from natural and artificial fabrics. All this circles in the air and penetrates into our apartments.
However, there is something else, and in very large quantities. These are... mites - microscopic living creatures that live in house dust. To date, about 150 species of mites have been found in house dust (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae are the most allergenic representatives). They are called dermatophagoid or pyroglyphid mites. According to one hypothesis, these mites initially lived in bird nests, and subsequently “crawled” into our houses and apartments.
They feed on dead scales of human skin. Ticks live in pillows bed linen, upholstered furniture, accumulations of dust on the floor, especially in secluded places where a broom cannot reach and drafts do not enter. They fly into the apartment along with the same drafts; we often bring them in with our clothes. It is estimated that there are about two million mites in a typical double bed. They cause little harm, but in some people they themselves and their secretions can cause allergies.
Well, why does dust accumulate in an apartment where no one lives? Everything is very simple. Firstly, no amount of thorough cleaning can change the composition of the air in the room. We left, and the dust will continue to settle for a long time. Just in time for our return, the air will become more or less clean due to the settled dust, but the furniture, floors - everything will be covered with thousands and thousands of particles. Secondly, even tightly closed windows and doors do not pose a particular barrier to dust. There would be a crack, but the dust, rest assured, would find it!
Household dust, magnified 115 times.
Interesting Facts
* In a tightly locked apartment with closed windows, about 12 thousand dust particles settle per 1 square centimeter of the floor and horizontal surface of furniture in two weeks. This dust contains 35% mineral particles, 12% textile and paper fibers, 19% skin flakes, 7% pollen, 3% soot and smoke particles. The remaining 24% is of unknown origin.
*House dust mites live for about four months. During this time, the tick produces excrement 200 times its own weight. And lays up to 300 eggs. Now it is clear why the concentration of allergens indoors increases rapidly in a short time.
* It is estimated that one hectare of lawn binds 60 tons of dust.
*The dustiest place in the house is the back wall of the refrigerator. It heats up itself and heats the air, which rises, and the result is an air river flowing from the floor to the ceiling and carrying back wall refrigerator dust.
* The air inside the house is almost always dustier than outside, unless you live in a large industrial city. Therefore, the easiest way to reduce dust in an apartment is to create a draft.
