IT’S CONFIRMED - CARPET IS BETTER!

A smooth flooring or a wall-to-wall carpet?  So far, the answer has divided allergy patients, doctors and scientists into two camps.  The Canadian Carpet Institute - the spokesgroup for the Canadian carpet industry - has been repeating it high and low, for a long time:

carpet traps particles (dust, pollen, and other allergenic substances) in its fibres, thereby keeping them out of the breathing zone until the carpet’s “trapping” qualities are refreshed by efficient vacuuming.  On a hard surface (ceramic, hardwood, vinyl, etc.), these particles are constantly swirled up to find themselves in the breathing zone.

A study commissioned by the DAAB (the German Allergy and Asthma Society) in 2005 shows that using a smooth flooring markedly increases the risk of finding an increased fine dust load in indoor rooms, while using “fitted” (wall-to-wall) carpets minimises this risk.  The results of this study were presented to the public in Düsseldorf at the German Allergy and Asthma Society Conference on Saturday, June 18, 2005.

The study has shown that the average fine dust concentration in indoor rooms equipped with smooth flooring material is twice as high as in indoor rooms equipped with wall-to-wall carpets, and thus exceeds the limit value.

With 62.9 µg/m³, the arithmetic mean value of the fine dust concentration in rooms with smooth flooring clearly exceeds the limit value of 50 µg/m³, whereas in households with fitted carpets, the mean value amounts to 30.4 µg/m³ and is thus substantially lower than the limit value.

Fine dust is a big problem, especially for allergy patients.  Irrespective of the kind of dust inhaled, the particles as such, with their mechanical effect, cause irritation when they enter the respiratory tract.  Where the bronchial system has previous damage, this effect will be so much the stronger.  Moreover, we find other pollutants bound to these particles, e.g., allergens that, in this manner, may get deep down into the lungs where relevant reactions may be caused.

Above all for particularly sensitive persons already suffering from previous damage to their airways, the selection of a flooring material binding dust and not emitting it to the air to be breathed is an essential preventive aspect.

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