{"id":13641,"date":"2024-12-08T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T08:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13641"},"modified":"2024-12-08T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T08:51:12","slug":"your-indoor-airs-dirty-secret-is-under-your-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13641","title":{"rendered":"Your Indoor Air\u2019s Dirty Secret Is Under Your Feet"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I spent this<\/span> past summer in a cabin in Maine. There, I continued to review gear for WIRED. I tested air purifiers<\/a>, food dehydrators<\/a>, and indoor air quality monitors<\/a>. I kept track of outdoor air quality, monitored the indoor air, and watched the numbers climb in their predictable pattern when I used the stove.<\/p>\n

A couple weeks into my air quality cabin experiment, I noticed odd spikes in PM 2.5 for seemingly no reason. PM 2.5 are those invisible particulates that can enter the deepest parts of the lungs and then the bloodstream. They contribute to negative health outcomes like heart attacks, hypertension, and respiratory issues, to name a few. I hadn\u2019t been cooking; I hadn\u2019t done anything. The PM 2.5 numbers, illuminated on various air quality monitors, climbed from 4 to 24 to 75 or higher. My air purifiers\u2019 internal sensors, some using the same technology as my air quality monitors\u2014a tiny chamber where a beam of light scatters picking up the particulates, even the invisible PM 2.5\u2014automatically cranked up their fans. And all I did was walk across the room.<\/p>\n

It was the rug!<\/p>\n

The first time I heard about the dangers of household rugs and carpets was from air pollution researcher Shelly Miller<\/a> at the University of Colorado in Boulder, whom I interviewed for my first story<\/a> on air quality; namely, how to get good air in my 100-year-old Brooklyn apartment. Miller was the one to introduce me to the term resuspension.<\/em> Resuspension is exactly what it sounds like: Dust and particulate matter in carpets take flight when kicked up by footsteps. The same thing happens with upholstery. Plop down on a sofa and you might see a puff of dust. I have an air quality monitor next to my bed, and I\u2019ve seen the uptick in PM 2.5 when I move my weighted blanket over my duvet. We dust, vacuum, and wash fabrics not just for aesthetics; it\u2019s also for our health, and more pointedly, our hearts.<\/p>\n

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