- Loft-dwelling urbanites who have abandoned wall-to-wall
shagpile for bare floorboards or concrete appear to have made the right
choice on medical grounds.
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- Carpets could be killing us because they harbour toxins
at levels far higher than those found on polluted city streets, environmental
engineers in the US have warned. The concentration of pollutants is up
to 10 times higher in homes than outdoors.
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- "If truckloads of dust with the same concentration
of toxic chemicals as is found in most carpets were deposited outside,
these locations would be considered hazardous waste dumps," said John
Roberts, who has studied the problem for nearly 20 years.
-
- He has found that on average a 10-year-old carpet will
contain 2lb (900g) of dust, much of it made up of dangerous substances,
including heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, pesticides, and
carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated
biphenols (PCBs).
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- "The carpet is the largest reservoir of dust in
a house, so that a house with bare floors and a few area rugs will have
about one-tenth of the dust found in a house with wall-to-wall carpet,"
Mr Roberts said.
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- Contaminants are brought in on on pets' paws or on shoes
and become trapped deep in carpet fibres.
-
- Cigarette smoke, cooking fumes, dust mites, mould and
residues of solvents on dry cleaned clothes all exacerbate the problem.
Attempts to clean the house can make matters worse because of the chemicals
in cleaning products.
-
- Britons are particularly at risk because of their fondness
for Axminsters and Wiltons and because 90% of their homes are carpeted.
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- Children are worst affected because they often play on
the floor and then put their hands in their mouths. They inhale 23 times
as much air as adults, weight for weight, and can be damaged by even low
levels of toxins. US studies have suggested that the average infant ingests
110 nanograms a day of the PAH benzopyrene - the equivalent of three cigarettes.
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- The most powerful weapons against pollutants are the
doormat and vacuum cleaner, Mr Roberts said.
-
- Long-term exposure to increased levels of airborne pollution
could shorten people's lives by up to six months, a report by the committee
on the medical effects of air pollutants said yesterday. The report, based
on US research, shows that residents of cleaner cities live longer than
their peers in dirty ones.
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