HOME AND FIRESIDE by Mary W. Paulson, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 30, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 18.

HOME AND FIRESIDE

By Mary W. Paulson, M.D.

Dangers in Dust

THE care of dust becomes an important factor in the hygiene of the home. Dust is also a great menace to the populace in our large cities. It is looked upon as inconvenient and annoying, but not as an evil, scattering disease. That one of the greatest evils of city life is dust, has been strangely overlooked.

Much can be done and is done to take care of the dust in our cities, such as frequent sprinkling, and care in sweeping streets, and the use of crude oil on the streets. The dust of the country is not nearly so dangerous as that of the city. But in the home, much more would be done to prevent disease if we appreciated what is liable to be in this dust.

An examination of dust, reported by the Department of Health, Buffalo, New York, shows the following:

Dust is filth in its most dangerous form.

Dust pollutes the air we breathe, the food we eat, the liquids we drink, the houses in which we live, and the clothing that covers our bodies.

Dust enters our bodies through the mouth, nose, eyes, and the pores of our skin.

Dust from streets, dwellings, factories, schools, theaters, and other public buildings, has been carefully collected and studied. It is found to contain:

Bits of sand and soil. Specks of soot and minute cinders, ashes, coal, lime. Particles from the wear and tear of brick, plaster, cement, and asphalt. Bits of wood and other plant fibers. Pollen and fragments of the seeds of plants. Fine hairs and scales from the bodies of animals. Lint and other fibers from clothing, carpets, etc. Dried and pulverized excrements of horses and other domestic animals, birds, dried remains of flies and other insects, and even of human beings. Waste material in endless variety from all sorts of industries.

Disease germs — bacteria and molds — derived from the excretions of man and animals, particularly the germs of tuberculosis which are coughed up by the victim of consumption and deposited as spittle where they can be rapidly dried and conveyed to healthy persons by currents of air.

If it is disgusting to read of these things, how much worse to take into our lungs the air, and into our stomachs the food, that has been contaminated by the admixture of dust!

Dust may be the cause of many of the diseases that affect the lungs and the digestive organs.

Dust is one of the most dreaded agencies in the spread of tuberculosis.

In the air may be found, under certain circumstances, any variety of germs. This is especially true in a house or room where there has been a diseased person, particularly infectious diseases, such as scarlet fever, ordinary grippe, possibly a cold, measles, pneumonia, and last but not least, tuberculosis.

At Most Dangerous Times

Particularly after a wind, in the streets, or after a dry sweeping of the house, is the air found to be laden with these germs. The old-fashioned method of raising a great deal of dust with the broom and then brushing this dust off from furniture with feather dusters, is a most excellent means of keeping the air filled with infectious germs.

The air is the purest after a rain or heavy snowfall. Quoting again from the Department of Health, Buffalo, New York:

Much of the dust that floats in the air of our houses is brought in as mud on the shoes and the clothing, especially on the skirts of women. Mud is contaminated by the droppings of horses and other animals having access to the streets, and by the expectoration of thoughtless and filthy people. Frequently this mud is left to dry upon the clothing in wardrobes and closets. Then the clothes-brush or the whisk-broom serves to distribute this dried mud through the air of the house until such time as the housekeeper chooses to raise the dust again by the process of dry sweeping. Once in the air, the dust is deposited by slowly settling on all surfaces, especially on cornices, heavy moldings, loose draperies, and other "dust traps" with which our houses are too frequently filled. From these resting-places it is likely to be driven into the circulating air again and again by the use of a dry dust cloth or a feather duster.

The United States War Department has banished the feather duster from all its offices and buildings, because it is believed to favor the dissemination of tuberculosis. It has been said that no city can claim to be quite civilized if it continues to spend the people's money to buy feather dusters for its public buildings.

The dust that you and your neighbor sweep from the door-step, and the clouds that rise from the beating of carpets in your own or your neighbor's yard, is soon returned to you or to your neighbor by the wind.

How to Get Rid of Dust

If you wish to get rid of dust, you must not stir it up, for as soon as it gets into the air it is beyond your control. Before sweeping, if sweeping is necessary, it is well to scatter on the floor some moist material, such as wet sawdust or bits of moistened paper. While sweeping, the windows and outside doors should be opened as widely as possible, and the doors communicating with other parts of the house should be closed. Dusting should always be done with a moistened cloth, which should be washed before it has a chance to dry.

Where the floors are bare, it is unnecessary and most unwise to sweep with a broom. The dust can be much more effectively removed by wiping up with a brush or with a cloth dampened with water or oiled.

Of course, dust should be destroyed or placed in covered receptacles. On no account should it be dumped into the yard or the street or into any open receptacle where it can be dislodged by the wind and distributed to other houses.

Dust Is Partial to Children

Dust falls, like the rain, upon the just and unjust, but in all places the children are exposed to the densest and coarsest part of the dust cloud. They creep or run about in an atmosphere that is much more heavily charged with bacteria, dirt, and other obnoxious refuse than the air breathed by the adults at a height of three or four feet above the children's heads. It is important, therefore, that the floors of rooms in which children live should be so covered that they may be frequently cleaned without flirting dust into the air. Oiled or varnished floors answer the purpose best, and may be covered with rugs or other material that can be easily removed and cleaned out-of-doors. Dogs and cats which have the freedom of the neighborhood are liable to bring into the house, into the hands and mouths of the children, all sorts of unsuspected and indescribable filth. You do not wish your child to play with dirty children. How about the cat and dog?

Many of the most stubborn diseases that afflict the operatives in factories and the employees in offices and stores are due to the polluted air which they are constantly inhaling. You should know what is necessary in order to protect yourself and your premises from dust, and you should demand this protection whenever possible.

Would you allow your neighbor to throw his garbage into your yard? Why should you allow him to defile the air of your house with dust — perhaps with the germs of consumption?

If we realize that dust is poison, we will abhor it. Much of the dust to which we are exposed is poison.

Rule Against Dust

Do not bring mud into the house. To-day's mud is to-morrow's dust.

The housekeeper can do much to prevent the circulation of this dust in the home. First, by providing means at the entrance so that mud and dirt shall not be carried into the house. Secondly, by using methods of sweeping carpets described above, or by the use of vacuum cleaners, or by using an ordinary carpet-sweeper. The wood floors can be wiped up with a damp cloth or by use of floor brushes made for the purpose of caring for polished floors. Such brushes can be cleaned and will take up the dust without scattering it.

The dusting of furniture should not be done with a feather brush or any other duster which scatters the dust, but by means of a soft damp cloth, or by the use of oils on the cloth.

Many a housewife has noticed, after she has swept the house, that she has an attack of sneezing; and many times the constant stirring up of dust each day produces a continual irritation in the nasal passages, so that the housekeeper or some member of the family apparently has a cold, little realizing that the dust has caused it. If you wish to prevent colds in the winter-time, do not stir up dust.

The dreaded disease tuberculosis could be very nearly eradicated if we would take care of our dust, because the germ is carried only after it is dried and enters the dust.