Dealing With Dust Mites - What You Can Do To Help Yourself: Allergies

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Dealing with dust mites

Dealing with dust mites

The dust you see on your furniture when the sun catches it is made up of plant and animal material — and dust mites. These tiny members of the spider family are so extremely small you can’t see them with the naked eye. Take it on faith, if your house has a humidity of more than 50%, you have dust mites — lots of dust mites. They can be anywhere in your house because they are especially partial to human dander; and because you spend more time in your bed than any other single spot, they live mainly in your bed — in the mattress, bedding, pillows, and box spring. At any given moment there could millions in bed with you!

Dust mite fecal matter is what causes the problem. This allergen is a cause of allergic rhinitis and can also trigger an asthma attack. Here are some tips for reducing your exposure to dust mites:

• Encase bedding (mattress, box spring, pillows) in airtight plastic or hypoallergenic covers.

• Wash bedding, including pillows and down comforter, once a week in hot water (130° F).

• Dry bedding in a hot-air dryer.

• Use hardwood, linoleum, or tiles in preference to wall-to-wall carpeting. If you use washable throw rugs, follow the same routine as for bedding.

• Avoid laying carpet directly on concrete.

• Maintain humidity levels at 30%–40%.

• Vacuum weekly using a HEPA filter or with a double bag.

When HEPA helps Vacuuming can be a blessing or a curse. Sucking everything in is excellent — as long as it stays in the vacuum bag and doesn’t blow out the machine’s exhaust mechanism and back into the air. Vacuums with HEPA filters or a double bag help keep the particles where they should be — trapped inside the vacuum. HEPA filters are also available in stand-alone air cleaners, but these aren’t the perfect solution. Whereas the air cleaners work well for cat dander, which is a light particle and stays airborne for a comparatively long time, they don’t work so well for dust mite particles, which are heavier and settle more quickly.

Putting a barrier between you and the dust mites would seem the ideal solution. But the effectiveness of allergen avoidance measures has been controversial, with some studies showing benefit and others showing none. The dilemma is illustrated by articles in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two studies published in 2003 failed to show any benefit from use of allergen-impermeable bedcovers in managing allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma in individuals sensitized to dust mites, even though these measures effectively lowered dust mite concentrations in these people’s bedrooms. However, an accompanying editorial noted that allergen avoidance measures should not rely on a single strategy. Furthermore, a subsequent study demonstrated the efficacy of allergen avoidance measures in allergic asthma; in this case, the measures used were not simply restricted to dust mite avoidance. The message seems to be that if you are going to the expense of allergen avoidance, which can be costly, you need to be thorough and not focus on one single measure.

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Last updated:	August 21, 2006
Reviewed By:	Faculty of Harvard Medical School

Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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