Offices are like a second home to us, we have to spend more than a third of our day in them, yet, we often have no control over the cleanliness of them as we do over our own homes, and it’s a concerning fact that they can often be making us ill.
Dust mites are a leading cause of asthmatic, respiratory and allergenic reactions, and offices are not only prime breeding grounds for dust mites, but also a thoroughfare for dust mites and skin flakes hitching a ride on the many people that pass through the office.
“People can often spend up to 10 hours a day in their offices and office chairs, sloughing off 10 grams of dead skin a week, which dust mites feed off. Furthermore, offices are often closed environments, and this only increases the concentration of dust mites,” says Avin Levy, MD for Germophobe Laboratories - a pharmaceutical company, specialising in the production of safe, non-toxic product ranges for the alleviation of dust mite, bed bug and pet allergies.
A recent study at the State of Oregon’s Occupational Health Laboratory on random offices found that approximately half had significant populations of dust mites, and that one in seven of the offices had health complaints that were directly caused by dust mite allergens. In a separate study, it was found that the main location that dust mites thrived in within an office environment was in office chairs. The time people spend in the chairs means that there are high levels of skin flakes and moisture, perfect habitats for the dust mites.
Approximately 70% of Asthmatics are allergy sufferers, and workplace conditions are responsible for 11% of asthma cases worldwide says the World Health Organization. Asthma accounts for about 10.1 million missed work days for adults annually according to the
“Dust mites that affect your work performance may not only be thriving in your office itself, people can suffer from respiratory difficulties from dust mite infestations in their own homes, causing poor sleep, decreased productivity and drowsiness,” says Levy. “Unfortunately some people may not even be aware that they are not getting a decent nights sleep, which is in turn causing them to feel the effects at work.”
Sleep deprivation has been shown to cause serious negative effects on work performance, with a recent WebMD.com article showing that a reduction in night time sleep by as little as 1.5 hours for just one night, could reduce daytime alertness by as much as 32 %. In addition, disruptive sleeping patterns lead to increased difficulty in concentrating, learning and communicating in the workplace and a decline in problem solving abilities.
Dust mites cause the majority of problems in the bed, where they infest bedding and pillows. This is due to the fact that they feed off dead skin cells, which are most widespread in our beds due to the time we spend in close contact with bedding. While humans are not necessarily allergic to the dust mites themselves, what they are allergic to are the faecal particles that they excrete after eating dead skin cells. One dust mite can produce up to 2000 faecal particles in its lifecycle.
In the first national survey of lead and allergens in housing, approximately one-quarter of American homes had levels of dust mite allergens present in a bed at a level high enough to trigger asthma symptoms.
“However, knowledge of the problem combined with the right actions can lead to a dramatic change in the symptoms caused by dust mites. This is precisely what Germophobe’s new MiteFree™ range of products have been developed to do in order to drastically reduce the allergic effects of dust mites on those affected, with a Dust Mite Spray as well as a Laundry Additive,” concludes Levy.