Can dust and dirt be good for you? Have a look. Enjoy the read!
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Link to the original article – https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/news_research/2011/05/16/dust_might_be_good_for_you_study.html
Dust might be good for you: study
By Eric DanekThe Canadian Press
Mon., May 16, 2011
“MONTREAL – Didn’t get around to dusting this weekend? Don’t worry. It turns out that dust might actually hold some benefits for you.
The perennial household nuisance actually purifies the air by neutralizing ozone that can harm our lungs.
Dust can do this because one of its major components is human skin — which contains the ozone-eliminating component squalene.
So don’t feel too bad about the fact that bits of your body are accumulating on the DVD player.
“Dust is parts of . . . people that have been in that room,” said Charles Weschler, who helped author a study, the result of which were announced this week by the American Chemical Society.
“I mean, that’s a gross way of thinking about it.”
Humans constantly shed their skin, losing up to 500 million cells per day. At that rate, according to Weschler, it would take a person two to four weeks to turn over all of the skin cells on their body.
It’s these skin flakes that clean the air. Their squalene helps neutralize ozone.
Most people might think of ozone as a good thing — and it is, when it’s up high in the atmosphere and protecting us from ultraviolet radiation. But when it’s down here, closer to us in the air that we breathe, it’s a pollutant.
According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, even very low concentrations of ozone can be harmful to the upper respiratory tract and the lungs.
In their study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology, Weschler and colleagues studied the potential of ozone removal by dust in Danish homes and daycares.
They found the reduction of ozone could be anywhere from two to 15 per cent, depending on the amount of squalene present in the dust.
The benefits could be even greater.
Weschler’s study only looked at the squalene in settled dust. He thinks that squalene from dust can also stick to surfaces like windows or desks, and this squalene coating could lead to a higher-than-calculated ozone reduction.
Dust isn’t the only source of squalene in our environment. We’re literally covered in it.
“The skin oils on our surface, (the) skin oils on our forehead, or our nose or the oils responsible for us leaving fingerprints behind, those skin oils contain squalene,” said Weschler, a professor at the School of Public Health at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
“Squalene is actually the single most abundant chemical in our skin surface (oils).”
He calls human beings, “remarkably good ozone sinks.”
But before you pack away that feather-duster forever, there are some caveats.
Of course, lower ozone levels will hardly provide comfort to your guests with dust allergies who wind up hacking and wheezing when they come over.
And not much is known about the health effects of the compounds formed when squalene and ozone react with each other.”
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Link to the original article – https://www.marksdailyapple.com/going-grubby-the-primal-benefits-of-dirt-dust-dishevelment/
Mark’s Daily Apple
Going Grubby: The Primal Benefits of Dirt, Dust and Dishevelment
“Clearly, cleanliness is next to godliness, as they say, in this country. The number of products devoted to the sacred rite of purging and scouring American households staggers the imagination. (Ever roamed the cleaning supply aisles at Target? It’s a trip unto itself.) Every strength, size, scent, packaging, active ingredient, and formula (Would you prefer powder, gel, spray, cream, or specially concentrated disk?). But wait! There’s the anti-bacterial, virus-killing, and “odor shielding” options. And, of course, we now have a plethora of “green” cleaners infiltrating the line up. (Some more green than others.)
But just what do we get for the infinite invention of the last thirty or so years? Are our living quarters really all that much cleaner than our grandmother’s homes? Have we truly transcended the power of elbow grease, hot water, and simple routine?
While basic sanitation has clearly made a critical difference in human health, what happens when old-fashioned diligence becomes super strength obsession?
Dust
We all remember learning in school that 90% of household dust is made up of sloughed human skin. Yeah, it grossed us out, but is it really such a major health threat that we use language suggestive of military assault to “combat” it? We tend to think that there are some useful things in there. How about pet dander? Numerous studies have shown that exposure to pet dander throughout childhood reduces the incidence of pet allergy and asthma.
We agree that if you can write “wash me” in the dust on your window sill it’s time to dig out the Swifter. (We didn’t say we were fans of filth.) Keeping a handle on the dust that accumulates is important, we think, but not because of the heebie jeebies elicited by the skin statistic or any aesthetic reasoning. It’s those nasty flame retardant particles (PBDEs) that get kicked up from furniture and other household items we talked about a couple of weeks ago. (Suddenly that human skin sounds pretty good.) Nonetheless, we don’t believe in flying off the handle. Cut out conventional flame retardant products where you can and happily retire the white glove test.
Dirt
O.K., this one’s our favorite. We could write an entire post “Ode to Dirt.” Suffice it to say, since our long lost days of mud pies, too many of us have forgone the unique pleasure of luxuriating in nature’s emollient.
For anyone who’s had a mud mask or massage, you likely need little convincing. For those of you who lived in the mud as children much to the desperate chagrin of your mothers, we know the love isn’t something you truly outgrow. (You wouldn’t happen to be outdoorsmen/women now would you?) But if you don’t fall into these categories, consider that your run-of-the-mill, basic, unassuming, backyard soil can act as an anti-depressant? You bet your buckets! Naturally occurring bacteria in the soil, it turns out, trip the neurons that produce serotonin.
As for soap, consider it overrated. There’s genius in that skin of ours – a nifty little “acid mantle,” to be specific, that protects the skin from dehydration, inflammation, and cracking that leaves it open to infection.
As for the typical household cleaners designed to rid your house of every speck of dirt that may trespass beyond your doorway? Well, as we said in our chemical load post, the endocrine-disrupting and respiratory damaging chemicals that make up so much of those products seem to be a much greater threat (understatement) than the good old dirt that Grok lived, ate and breathed.
Dishevelment
O.K. We don’t have much of a “health” argument to make with this one. In fact, household clutter has even been linked to higher obesity rates. However, in light of the “clean” obsession, are we overdoing it on this front too? There’s the part in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Ferris describes Cameron’s house (to paraphrase): It’s like a museum. It’s very beautiful, but you don’t dare touch anything.
In Grok’s day (and perhaps in our grandmothers’) it was probably easier to keep a clean house because – well – people just didn’t accumulate as much stuff. In the age of Rubbermaid bins and The Container Store, isn’t it so easy to just keep adding to the collection as long as everything ends up with a place to “live,” as professional organizers call it?
We think there’s a place for dishevelment to be sure. To affirm the old adage, recent research suggests that the owners of messy offices are more creative than those with very neat spaces. Apparently, the proverbial, creative, “light-bulb” moments tend to come as a result of mental happenstance. The mind finds momentary distraction in a “side track” thought (or random unearthed document) and has the chance to make new and novel connections. Sound true to you?
In the spirit of good old Mother Nature, the opposite of dishevelment isn’t meticulous organization. In one setting, one moment, it’s layer upon layer of rich detail. Stark spareness in another. (Perhaps there’s something to living with both possibilities. Hmmm?) In either and any case, it’s messy, dirty, dusty, rough, ragged and will probably leave a mark. In the postmodern, super sanitized, Fabreeze-misted world of Mr. Clean versus Grok, thanks, but we’ll hang with Grok any day of the week.”
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Dust Monitoring Equipment – providing equipment, services and training in dust fallout management to the mining industry.
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