I can see where dust comes from when someone is doing remodelling or repairs. But where does it come from otherwise?
The house is closed up for 2 weeks and you are away on vacation. Where did that layer of new dust you found on your return come from?
Our home is older, as was our last one. Sometimes it seems as if we need to dust daily. I know where the dog and cat hair came from, and the white dust when the neighbor limed his fields. But where the h does all the rest come from?
And, if we had hot air heat with filters, instead of hot water heat, would we have less? Doesn’t seem like much less when the A/C is on.
Replies
Some is from us...dead skin cells.
Some is from air. A prior house I lived in had more dust by the road side than the other side, and based on the color, it was likely from the tires of the cars going by that found ways to sneak in even though that window was never open.
In the woods, it's decaying plant matter blowing around in the wind. Some comes in when the doors are opened and some just sneaks in. The dust fairy brings the rest in.
Also look at the bedroom and laundry. In addition to dead human skin, a lot of dust is tiny fibers from our clothes and other fabrics, and overspray from deodorants and hair products. In addition to rubber worn from tires, brake linings also produce some road dust.
The surface of the planet we're on also turns to dust when it gets dry. I have that kind of dust in my crawl space. It's the really fine kind, in the sub-micron to just a few microns size range, that hangs in the air for hours if it gets disturbed at all. A little air movement thru the crawl vents on a windy day can pick some of it up.
-- J.S.
I remember a study of dust done in the Tokyo subway that showed that somewhere between 10% and 25% of all the 'dust' they collected in random samples was in fact human skin.I think it was Discover magazine that had an article that pointed out that dust is a international issue. Dust storms in China and Africa show up on our shores. An issue in itself but also carrying bacteria, mold spores and pollution. All linked with respiratory illness, asthma, allergies. The discomfort, costs in the Billions of dollars associated with these and the death toll are well documented.One solution proposed was green belts of trees. It turns out trees are really good at slowing the wind and allowing the dust to settle out. Once they settle out the moisture the trees hold and the biological processes they promote then fix the dust in place. And so many think that global warming, decertification and overpopulation are only problems 'over there'. That somehow the winds don't cross borders.
Actually it was found that a big reason for the reef die-offs in florida and carribean a few years ago was from dust carried across the atlantic from sahara dust storms.Just like they say " what goes around -comes around".
And, if we had hot air heat with filters, instead of hot water heat, would we have less?
I've lived with both types of heat. With the hot water system, it seemed that a great percentage of the dust congregated in the form of cobwebs, on or above the radiators.
With forced air systems, a great deal depends on the ductwork, and the filters. If the ductwork is kept clean, and you use HEPA-grade filters, then you won't notice dust nearly as much. With older ducts, or cheap filters, its bad.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
I live in an area where snow covers the ground at least 5-6 months of the year. Dust everywhere, I think it is global, we really do live in the global village, if someone shakes a rug out in Zimbabwe it eventually land on my dining room table.
Years ago up near Mayo in the central Yukon there were these 'yellow' type clouds floating around they eventually figured out it was pollution floating over from industrial mills in Russia.
youve never heard of the dust bunnies that live under the beds and such?
those are either somebody is coming or going...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
http://www.gasdetection.com/news2/health_news_digest7.html
"For the record, household dust itself is composed primarily of human skin and hair, waxes, pollen, fungi, lichen, tiny particles of wood, paint, fibers from fabrics, foam rubber, wallboard, plant and vegetable matter, insect parts, food waste, paper fiber, and metal particles. This lovely mixture is also jazzed up with any number of ambient chemical pollutants that collect on the mass.
While dust mites cannot survive on vinyl or hardwood floors, they surely thrive everywhere that dust accumulates, and do especially well in bedrooms. Mites just love pillows, mattresses, bed springs, blankets, and comforters. Ten percent of the weight of a two-year-old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their fecal pellets. Pleasant dreams!
Here are some numbers that might make you squirm: A typical used mattress can have 100,000 to 10 million mites inside, feeding on the 6 grams of dead skin you shed each week. Each mite produces 10-20 waste pellets per day, and each egg-laying female can produce 25-30 more mites every three weeks. Cold comfort that a mite only lives about three months, especially when its dead carcass is allergenic!"
Part of your vacation dust was already in the air and settled out while you were gone. Also, homes leak and have a number of complete changes of air every day, even with everything closed, so dust comes in from the outside.
If you had forced air heat with normal furnace filters there would be no difference, because the filter is so coarse. If you had a HEPA filter it would probably be better. If you had an electronic air cleaner in your furnace the house would be much cleaner. I had one in one house and it was very much cleaner. I think they are better than HEPA because they have no operating cost, whereas HEPA filters are expensive.
I use to be in the Sea Bees when I was in the Navy. On one deployment I was the operator on a rock crusher. One day the watch that I was wearing quit on me. Thinking that the battery went dead I took it to the base exchange jeweler to have him put and new battery in it. This watch was rated to be water proof to a depth of 70 feet. When the jeweler opened the watch he looked at me in amazement. It was packed full of what we called "rock flower". Dust that is so fine that you can not see it with the naked eye.
Soils Laboratories have a series of screens that stack one a top of the other. At the very bottom of the stack is the pan. Then next screen above the pan is the #200 sieve. That is 200 holes per squire inch. Water will not go threw that sieve unless you run your finger around the under side of it. But that pan will have material in it.
Just think we are breathing this stuff all of the day, day in and day out, for all of our lives.
Dane
I will always be a beginner as I am always learning.
Re: "Just think we are breathing this stuff all of the day, day in and day out, for all of our lives."All I can say to that is: 'My lung feels fine'.Wwheeezzzz, Coff, cough.
It looks like alot of the guys are pulling your leg with all this Jr. High scientific mumbo jumbo. Dead skin isn't dust, its dead skin! Tire wear isn't dust, its rubber! Crushed stone is still rock. Real dust comes from outer space.
Hmmm."Real dust comes from outer space."So your saying the sky is falling?
Meteors don't just fall at night Y'know. They are falling during the day. Past worlds are sprinkling down upon us. The world is getting bigger day by day but most people won't notice because the land is rising as quickly as the sea. 30 years ago I could walk downtown in 22 minutes, today it takes almost half an hour.
I've read that in a couple of sci mags. Seems this is the stuff that eventually covers thing up. Why are so many things buried from thousands of years ago?
Exactly.
A journey of dust?
Keep clicking on the square in the picture...
http://www.wordwizz.com/pwrsof10.htm
Thank you for the link, I'll share that with my son tomorrow.
Man. knowing this is going to save me a lot of work. A lot of conduit runs are speced as being buried. Knowing all this I could save a lot of messing with dirt. just run the conduits across the ground and let the extra-terrestrial fallout cover them to depth. Thanks. Man this is going to revolutionize construction.
Brilliant! However, if you find that not enough space dust is falling in your particular area to cover the pipes in a timely fashion, you can speed up the process by standing over the conduits and shaking off some dead skin or dandruff. Combing works too. Hair is an excellent space dust binder.
Just make sure your contract includes a millenium clause. You won't be penalized until the year 3005.
Going to be a while before we can call in the inspection. Pencil it in for early 6505. And the HOs think their jobs take too long now.
I think one of the problems with recurrent dust, especially in new houses that tend to be tighter and therefore more resistent to outside dust, is portable vacuum cleanters. The really fine stuff (old drywall dust, for example), will pass right through a typical vacuum bag, and be blown about the room....until it gradually works its way down into the carpet, where the portable vacuum picks it up and again, spews it back out into the rooms air.
A way around this, me-thinks, is a central vac with an outside exhaust, which I've installed in our new house. So check with me in 6 months to see how our dust level is doing :-}
BruceM
Here's the ultimate reference site on the health effects of fine dust and the problem of it being recirculated rather than captured by dust collectors and shop vacs:
http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm
-- J.S.