Small Particles

My father's words, in memory : "Eat dirty, grow dirty but be healthy".

I'm not sure if there are any houses out there, that is totally dust-free. As long as I can remember my house in Malaysia, there were always dust somewhere and Mummy mopped the floor on almost daily basis. But then again, where we lived, there was always construction going on. My 6 1/2 years in Moscow, everywhere I stayed, be it hostel or my own apartments.. there is dust!

I visited Hannan's blog a while ago and recently he had an asthma attack. A severe one. He's recovered now from steroid jabs and what triggered his hypersensitivity was dust. I remember my best friend, Sha is also allergic to dust. She can't tidy her room nor do housework because it would cause her to sneeze for hours (sounds valid to avoid cleaning LOL)

But do you know what dust is?

I remember learning from the movie, The Green Mile that "dust is made up of dry skin so you want to be careful who enters your house". I did some further reading about dust, they are composed of just about everything around us - human/animal hair, pollen, fabric, paper, soil, mineral, pollution and the list goes on. As much of a sore sight and irritant it may be.. this minute solids are actually very interesting. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get rid of them because they are everywhere. I can't believe I'm writing dust in this entry LOL

So, there are 2 kinds of dust. Domestic and atmospheric.

Domestic dust is found indoors (what I'm complaining about). Its composition and quantity varies from one household to the other because it depends on several factors that contributes to its collection. Like environmental wise would be the airflow, surroundings, house condition, its material and quality. Then comes the occupants' activities, the number of occupants, ventilation, cleaning habits, lifestyle and so forth.

Dust bunnies are clumps of accumulated dust, found mostly in corners. They may sound cute but they are obviously not. Yucks.

Atmospheric dust is carried by the climate (wind, rain etc). These are hazardous because depending on its compounds, they can cause respiratory diseases and even explosions. They hail from construction sites, roads, industrial centres, transports and the list goes on longer. Eventually these atmospheric dust get into our houses and become domestic anyways.

What can we really do to domestic dust control?

This is what I do regularly:

1. Wiping window aisles, cabinets and tables with wet cloth
2. Vacuum the fuck out of the carpets and dust them outside
3. Mopping the floors every weekend or fortnightly (at least)

This is what I don't believe in doing:

1. Feather dusters - it only blows the dust and more to other areas
2. Sweeping with broom - same as above, when done indoors
3. Keep windows shut at all times - it doesn't work, in fact it's dirty

Atmospheric dust is beyond our capabilities so it depends on the government, like whatever laws they would mandate to minimalise dust. For example, trucks that water the roads in the city and neighbourhoods (but then we wonder about water wastage LOL).

Conclusion is, there really isn't much we can do about dust.