Dust Mites and Pet Allergies

Dust mites and pet hair are the most important cause of allergy problems. Because they may not always be easily avoided try minimising the ‘allergy-load’ in your home as described below:

Mites live comfortably in mattresses, pillows, duvets, blankets, carpets, soft furnishings, curtains and similar fabrics. Female mites lay-up to 50 eggs, with a new generation produced every three weeks. Each mite produces about twenty waste particles every day.

When working on anti-dust mite regimes concentrate on the bedroom.

• If bedding (mattress, pillows, eiderdowns, bolsters) contains wool, kapok, cotton, horsehair, feathers or down with synthetic materials change to polyester or dacron.
• Buy blankets and curtains made of synthetic fibres.
• Get rid of down, winceyette and flannel materials.
• Get rid of carpets and rugs. Here there really should be no compromise. Mites also thrive in carpeting, no matter how tight the pile. The floors of mite allergy sufferers should be wooden (no unsealed cracks), linoleum, cork-tiled or parquet. These surfaces are so much easier to clean and run a wet mop over.
• Get rid of cushions not filled with synthetic materials as well as anything made from wool or cotton.
• Minimise dust collectors such as heavy drapes, bookshelves, tapestries etc.
• Paint rather than wallpaper the walls of the bedroom.
• Get rid of teddy bears and other soft toys. Special “life-is-not-worth-living-without” soft toys should be washed at least once a week and each morning put into the deep freeze for about three hours to kill off mites.
• Open the bedroom windows for at least three hours every day, even in very cold weather.
• Use a damp cloth when dusting. Anything else only redistributes the dust.
• Choose light weight curtains that are quick and easy to wash at temperatures around 58C. Consider roller blinds.
• Remove fabric covered headboards.
• Use only a vacuum cleaner with a special dust filtration unit. Vacuum and damp dust at least once a week.
• A bed with a plain wooden or metal base is preferable to a divan.
• Where bunk beds are in use, the allergy sufferer should sleep in the top bunk.
• Do not allow pets into an allergy sufferer’s bedroom.
• Do not smoke, or allow anyone else to smoke, in an allergy sufferer’s presence or in any other room they are likely to use.
• Don’t have the radiator on as much in an allergy sufferer’s bedroom, perhaps just enough to take the chill out of the air. Mites love warm temperatures.
• All clothes, shoes, socks should be put away in drawers and not left lying around the room. No hooks on the back of doors allowing clothes to hang there.
• If possible, have in-built wardrobes rather than free-standing units.
• Mattresses and pillows and duvets should be aired regularly. If there is a spell of good weather, get the bedding outside and into the air and beat the mattress to clear excess dust.
• Encase the mattress, pillows and duvet with a special protective cover that is comfortable to lie on, but does not permit dust mites to penetrate through. There are a number of companies dealing with these products and the price difference between them is very significant. Dunnes Stores do an excellent and inexpensive range of
• low-allergy products

Choose your vacuum cleaner carefully.

The best (and unfortunately the most expensive) are those with high dust filtration units. This means the collected dust is retained and not recirculated. Look for Models produced by Medivac, Electrolux, Miele and Dyson. Make sure the supplier hasn’t removed the special filtration bag (it does happen).

When you are vacuuming and damp dusting, try and do a thorough job at least once a week and remember to go under the bed with the vacuum cleaner.

NB: if you are an allergy sufferer and smoke cigarettes don’t waste time, money and effort on anti-allergy manoeuvres. If you continue to smoke you undo the good that the above measures might achieve. Even more important: if your child is allergic and you, your husband/wife/granny/uncle/babyminder/or whoever, smokes such that child passively inhales then, again, don’t bother with anti-allergy programmes. Cigarette smoking undoes all their good and will definitely make any allergy problem worse. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

An excellent website to check is www.healthhouse.org. This is an American site developed by the American Lung Foundation and lists anti-allergy regimes in great detail. Some of the suggestions do seem a bit over the top but most are very common sense and practical.

Another dimension to anti-allergy manoeuvres is available through Biozone Scientific, a division of Pure Air Technologies. This company manufactures anti-allergy units that can be installed easily in most homes. There are small devices that are ideal for bedrooms. Check their website www.pureairtechnologies.co.uk. The Irish division is in Louisburgh, Co Mayo.