Re: DYSON vacuum

[Guest guest]

In our sick house 10 years ago, a few months after evacuating we found that we

could be back in the house without ill effect. Thinking we were going to clean

and reoccupy, we had a pretty good quality central vacuum system installed,

carefully vented outdoors. I started vacuuming a modest size rug (sitting on

hard surface floor), and within minutes we were all having systemic reactions

and had to leave the house again...and what the vacuum had stirred up took a

week to settle back out.

Disagree on the childhood asthma: the carpet/floor is simply a reservoir of

particulates. It is the original source of those particulates that is the

problem. Vacuuming when the house is well ventilated (windows open, breeze

blowing through) net reduces the amount of " stuff " in the building interior.

Yes, sensitized people should be somewhere else when this is done, clothes put

away, and beds covered.

And based on our sick house I now believe that water soluble particulates --

those which will get back into the air simply by dissolving in humidity that

gets too close -- is much more likely the problem than insoluble substance.

Naively I expect it is easier for a low molecular weight substance already

dissolved in a water droplet that hits the lung surface to make it to the

bloodstream, than for an insoluble solid which deposits on the lung surface.

Steve Chalmers

stevec@...

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Message: 12

Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:08:57 -0800

Subject: Re: DYSON vacuum

Marine has it correct...All vacuums discharge a whole lot of micron-size

particulates, and indoor vacuums contribute significantly to negative IAQ.

If you don¹t think so, use a particle counter and see for yourself. The

operation of almost any vacuum results in several orders of magnitude of

measurable particulates indoors over ambient conditions. I believe vacuums

are the root cause of so much childhood asthma. In a parent¹s quest to

provide a clean home for their children, frequent vacuuming is not good.

Frequent vacuuming is, more often than not, doing much more harm to the

young and developing lung systems.