5 Things You Didn't Know Could Be in Household Dust

Those dust bunnies hiding under the bed and lurking behind the bookcase are more of a nuisance than a threat, right? Not necessarily. You’d be surprised what everyday household dust can actually contain:

1. Human Skin Cells
People shed thousands of dead skin cells every day, but we don’t really think about where they end up. To be fair, this isn’t really dangerous, but it’s kind of icky – sort of like finding a hair in your soup.

2. Decomposing Insects
This is just plain nasty. Who wants dead bug parts hanging around where you live!?

3. Lead
Here’s where the danger starts. Lead is poisonous. Now, the chance of being exposed to a high concentration of lead through household dust is highly unlikely, but lead poisoning can also occur slowly over time which can be especially dangerous for small children.

4. Arsenic
Back in the day, arsenic was a popular poison because it was difficult to detect in food or drink and didn’t have any well-defined symptoms. Household dust won’t have enough potency to be lethal, but if there is a high enough concentration it could have some adverse effects, including diarrhea, hair loss and convulsions.

5. DDT
Even though DDT was banned from use in the United States in 1972, there is still a lot of it floating around. DDT has been linked to cancer, liver damage, and reproductive issues so it’s not something that you really want in your home.

Dust bunnies looking a little more dangerous now? Never fear! Air filtration is here! Installing a high-quality air filter in an HVAC system can collect 85% of these particles – but it can only capture what is airborne. A regular walk through the house with the vacuum and a dust cloth will help too.

Homes by Taber includes an air filtration system in every home they build to help keep you and your family safe from these harmful airborne particles.