Hiphome Luxury Rug - Design Blog

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Carpets for healthy living

Dusting off a myth

In the past, carpet has been unfairly singled out for its alleged association with dust and allergies. However those views are little more than urban myths.

For allergy and asthma suffers, the critical issue is the amount of dust and allergens present in the air they breathe.

A recent study by the German Asthma and Allergy Foundation (ALLERGIE konkret 2/2005) found that wall-to-wall carpet reduces dust in the air to half that found above hard flooring surfaces.

The German study backs up the views of Australian respiratory experts Marks & Abramson in their paper ‘House dustmite avoidance: Facts and fiction’ (Asthma Update 2001). Reviewing evidence of the effectiveness of the various dustmite exposure minimisation strategies and clinical evidence, Marks & Abramson conclude that removing carpet has not been demonstrated to reduce overall dustmite allergen exposure in the home and recommend against any drastic and unproven lifestyle modifications such as removing carpet.

It has now been proven that a properly maintained carpet has a positive effect on Indoor Air Quality.

Indoor air quality

Australians typically spend 90% of their time indoors - so indoor air quality is an important factor in protecting health and wellbeing.

The main factors that affect indoor air quality are:

* inadequate ventilation which may occur if heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) are ineffective,
* chemical contaminants from inside and outside the building -- these include volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
* biological contaminants e.g. bacteria, moulds, pollen.

Many countries have instituted standards and voluntary codes of practice that set guidelines for indoor air quality.