Raise your hand if you hate dusting! 🙋♀️
Most people think house dust is just unsightly, or that it’s made up of dead skin cells (yuck), pet dander, and dirt.
Well it’s both of those things, but that’s not all. Turns out that house dust is also a receptacle for chemicals in the home.
Many harmful chemicals are released from the materials they are used in – whether it’s flame retardants in your couch, PFAS chemicals from your carpet, or phthalates found in scented products – and they settle in the dust in your home.
Let’s look at house dust through the lens of one of these: phthalates.
Phthalates are a class of chemicals that are used in the majority of fragrance formulations… think: laundry detergent, dryer sheets, air fresheners, room sprays, scented candles, personal care products, household cleaners, etc. (They are also found in other items as well, like some types of soft plastics.)
When you do laundry, clean, light a candle, etc, the phthalates in those fragrances don’t just vanish into thin air. They settle on surfaces and end up in house dust.
In fact, in a meta-analysis of dust studies across the US, phthalates were measured in 100% of samples!
This is a concern because phthalates are well-established endocrine-disrupting compounds that are linked to health issues like:
👉Type II diabetes and insulin resistance
👉 Overweight/obesity
👉 Breast cancer
👉 Asthma
👉 Reproductive issues in men and women
👉 Altered male reproductive development
What can we do about this?
1️⃣ Start phasing out the use of all fragranced items in the home. I know, I know, who doesn’t love a good-smelling candle or that fresh laundry scent? But opting for fragrance-free or naturally scented products can really cut down on those phthalate levels.
2️⃣ Wet dust & vacuum often. Wet dusting is simply using a damp cloth to dust (wash & reuse!) instead of something like a feather duster. And vacuuming can help cut down on dust in the home.
Reference:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.6b02023,
https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6304/7/2/21