The Problem: Indoor Air Pollution

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov)

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies of human exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor air levels of many pollutants may be two to five times, and occasionally, more than 100 times higher than outdoor levels. These levels of indoor pollutants are of particular concern, because it is estimated that most people spend as much as 90 percent of their time indoors. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov)

• Eighty-five percent of Americans don't realize that the air in their homes may be a health hazard. With Americans spending an estimated 90 percent of their time indoors, people should consider indoor air pollutants as a possible source of sneezing and wheezing. (Source:1999 survey released by the American Lung Association and funded by an educational grant from Honeywell Consumer Products, www.lungusa.org).

Allergies and Asthma are Common Effects of Indoor Air Pollution

• Poor indoor air quality can cause or contribute to the development of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. In addition, it can cause headaches, dry eyes, nasal congestion, nausea and fatigue. People who already have respiratory diseases are at greater risk. (Source: American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org)

• People exposed to indoor air pollutants for the longest periods of time are often those most susceptible to the effects of indoor pollution - children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with lung disease such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. (Source: American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org)

• Each year more than 50 million Americans suffer from allergic diseases. Of that total, more than 17 million Americans, including 5 million children, are affected by asthma. (Source: American Academy of Asthma, Allergies and Immunology, www.aaaai.org)

• Mold dusts have been causing symptoms that may relate to asthma. "Chronic rhinosinusitis" (CRS) has been a puzzling condition. The number of people suffering from perennially stuffy noses and sinuses grew 60 percent between 1982 and 1994. That's the same terrific growth rate as asthma. CRS now afflicts roughly 40 million people in the United States. (Source: The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes, pg. 183)

Dust Mites Are the Most Common Cause of Allergic Reactions

• Dust is home to dust mites, considered one of the most common causes of allergy and asthma symptoms in the world. (Source: My House is Killing Me! by Jeffrey May, pg. 11.)

• There is a strong relationship between asthma and the dust of these little scavengers. As with tobacco smoke, there's a chance that an overload of dust mite dust may cause asthma in children. It clearly causes allergies. (Source: The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes, pg. 185)

• Dust mites are tiny, microscopic organisms usually found in house dust. Several thousand mites can be found in a pinch of dust. (Source: American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org)

• Every home has dust mites. They feed on skin flakes that are found in mattresses, pillows, carpets, upholstered furniture, bedcovers, clothes, stuffed toys, fabric, and other fabric-covered items. Body parts and feces of dust mites can trigger asthma in individuals with an allergic reaction to dust mites. Exposure to dust mite allergen can cause asthma in susceptible children. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov)

• A house's highest mite counts are typically found between couch cushions, on the family room floor, and on the bedroom floor. (Source: The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes, pg. 185)

Vacuuming is an Important Defense Against Indoor Air Pollution

• Vacuum carpets and rugs often or remove them completely to improve indoor air quality. (Source: American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org)

• The carpet is usually the largest dust reservoir in the house. Normal vacuuming of a carpet does not remove all the deep dust. Five to 25 times as much dust may remain in older carpets as are removed by regular vacuuming. Nearly all old carpets have an accumulation of deep dust that increases the amount of dust, lead, pesticides, dust mites and mold on the surface of the carpet and in the air. If you have carpets in your home, you need to keep them clean with an effective vacuum with a power head. These vacuums are three to six times as effective as vacuums without power brushes. The bag, belt and brush need to be checked and replaced regularly.

  An initial thorough vacuuming can remove the majority of the deep dust from a carpet. To remove the deep dust, each week, make 25 passes over the door mat and the area of the rug within four feet of the main entrance doors, 16 passes over areas that receive a lot of foot traffic, and eight passes over the rest of the carpet. You will have removed a good portion of the deep dust in your carpets. From that time, careful weekly vacuuming using one half the passes mentioned above in combination with other cleaning methods should keep carpet dust levels low. (Source: "Protecting Small Children From Toxics in House Dust" by John Roberts, Engineering Plus, 9-24-00, www.hud.gov)

Efficient Filtration is Becoming Increasingly Important to Homeowners

• Consumers can help take precautions to eliminate bacteria and other irritants in their homes through vacuuming with highly efficient filters, which can trap particles as small as 0.3 microns or 1/300th of a human hair. Many irritants are larger than 0.3 microns, and therefore, are large enough to be captured by HEPA and high efficiency filters:

  Bacteria (0.3 microns), pet dander (0.5-11 microns), pollen (7 to 100 microns), plant spores (9 to 100 microns), and even some cooking (0.3 - 30 microns), wood (.03 - 3 microns) and tobacco smoke (.01 - 1 micron) (Particle Size Source: North Central Regional Extension Publications, Cooperative Extension, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

• Filtration, which has become a cost-of-entry feature on most upright vacs (other than entry level units) could soon become more of a differentiator as some suppliers have begun to ramp up claims comparing their filtration levels to those of competitors. (Source: HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®, Special Supplement, Fourth Annual Housewares Census)

• Filtration could also become more important as consumer concerns about environmental threats increase. Recent news reports, for example, noted clean up crews in Washington and New York are using vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters to capture Anthrax spores. While no major vacuum cleaner manufacturers are currently looking to make claims about their products' ability to protect consumers from Anthrax, consumer awareness of HEPA could have significant impact on vacs carrying such technology in the coming months. (Source: HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®, Special Supplement, Fourth Annual Housewares Census)

• Some vacuum cleaners have special filtration. According to Jeffrey May, author of My House is Killing Me!, "I prefer a vacuum with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter that is supposed to contain all large particles and at least 99.97 percent of the 0.3 micron particles suspended in the air moving through the machine. I continue to recommend that those with allergies in the family use only a HEPA vacuum. (Source: My House is Killing Me! by Jeffrey May, pg. 255.)