Preventing Dust Mites in Pillows and Bedding
THE other night my husband and I were having serious pillow talk. But not the kind you might think. Ours went something like this:
Husband: Don’t we need new pillows? We’ve been sleeping on ours for, like, seven years.
Me: They seem fine to me.
Husband: But they are probably full of dust mites and other gross stuff.
Me: Ugh. O.K.
[...]
This is interesting: "They are almost nonexistent in places like New Mexico but thrive in tropical areas like Florida." I've always been under the impression that they were sort of symbiotic with us, necessary to the process of breaking down the vast amounts of skin and hair cells shed by everyone with skin and hair, all the time. (And, if I may say so, this is a great illustration of the reasons I favor students spending as much of their research time on-line as possible. No printed text or combination of texts can possibly offer access to anywhere near the same vast amount of up-to-date information, and it's good for the critical thinking skills. :))
Another interesting bit, from Wikipedia: "It is commonly believed that the accumulated detritus from dust mites can add significantly to the weight of mattresses and pillows. While it is true that the fecal matter of dust mites will increase over time, there is no scientific evidence for these claims.[8]
Allergy and asthma sufferers are also often advised to avoid feather pillows due to the presumed increased presence of the house dust mite allergen (Der p I). The reverse, however, is true. A 1996 study from the British Medical Journal has shown that polyester fibre pillows contained more than 8 times the total weight of Der p I and 3.57 times more micrograms of Der p I per gram of fine dust than feather pillows.[9]"
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