ALERGIES
Jiffy steamers kill dust mites.
Do you or your children suffer from allergies?
The 2003 environmental protection agency report states that the childhood asthma rate has doubled in the past twenty years. The epa report provides a comprehensive look at the environmental impacts on children’s health. The air pollution has improved since 1990, however, occurrence of allergies keeps increasing. Reduction of indoor factors turned out to be the key factor.
The dust mites cause allergies with their allergens contained mainly in their secretion, in particular, in fecal. The dust mite allergens are mostly airborne and our organism face inhalation thereof. The dust mite allergens join with relatively “bigger” particles of house dust (exceeding 10 ?m, i.e. tens of thousandths of millimetres). Unlike allergens of cats and dogs, for example, which stay in the air even for several days after whirling, such bonded dust mite allergens constitute a heavier component of the dust tending to settle more. Therefore, the problems of the dust mite origin often come out in the evening after lying in bed, during the night till the morning, when the children play on beds, on sofas and carpets, during vacuum-cleaning, large clean-up, etc.
Clinical studies have revealed that avoiding the dust mite allergens in early childhood may avoid the onset of asthma of adults.
A study, as reported in the journal of clinical and experimental allergy, tested the feasibility and effectiveness of using the steamer for the control of dust mites, its impact on dust mite population and concentration of der p1 allergen.2
The steamer was tested on eight carpet squares which were seeded with a known number of dust mites. the number of live dust mites was monitored for a period of 4 months in 8 tested squares and 8 control squares.
The results showed two significant findings. no live mites were found in any of the eight squares treated by steamer. in the contrary, the number of live dust mites extracted from eight control squares increased from an average of 11 to 185 in a period of four months. The fact that no live dust mites were found in any of the eight steam-treated carpet squares at any time during the study proves that steaming is a highly efficient method of dust mite killing. More significant for people suffering from allergies is measuring of der p1 allergen where there was no difference in concentration of der found in samples of dust in untreated carpets, but in those which were steam-cleaned by the steamer, the average decrease in der p1 concentration was 87 %.
The study concluded that steaming is a highly efficient dust mite control tool without using chemicals. besides, no damage to or shrinkage or discoloration of the fabric was observed and the carpets were dry within a half an hour of treatment. Vacuum cleaning leaves the carpets very wet, which may promote the dust mite population growth.
Finally, steaming with the use of the steamer is the only environment-friendly method of the house dust mite control, combining efficient killing of dust mites with significant reduction of allergen concentration within a single system. these factors, altogether, make the steamers an ideal helper in fighting the dust mites and allergens in your homes.
Take control of your allergy and protect your loved ones today! we recommend jiffy steamer j-2000 model.
sources:
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asthma/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asthma/triggers.html
1 as reported by associated press 26 february 2003
2 mj coloff, c taylor, tg merrett. the use of domestic steam-cleaning for the control of house dust mite. clinical and experimental allergy 1995 25: 1061-6.
- may, jeffrey c (2001). my house je killing me! home guide for families with allergies and asthma. john hopkins university press.