Where Does Dust Come From?

Dust. It floats lazily through beams of sunlight, it settles gently on surfaces, and it tangles with other mysterious miscellany to create inanimate creatures beneath the couch–but where does it come from, and is it harmful? Scientists in Arizona reported a surprising answer to those questions in a report, “Migration of Contaminated Soil and Airborne Particulates to Indoor Dust,” which appeared in the ACS Environmental Science & Technology journal. The verdict? Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors, and it’s not always all that innocuous.

In the study, David Layton and Paloma Beamer found that over 60 percent of house dust originates outdoors. They note that household dust consists of a mixture that includes dead skin shed by people, fibers from carpets and upholstered furniture, and tracked-in soil and airborne particles blown in from outdoors. It can include lead, arsenic and other potentially harmful substances that migrate indoors from outside air and soil. This can be of special concern for children, who can ingest these substances by spending time on a dusty floor, or by putting dusty toys and other objects into their mouths.

They estimated that nearly 60 percent of the arsenic in floor dust could come from arsenic in the surrounding air, with the remainder derived from tracked-in soil.

1 of 2

Read more: General Health, Health & Safety, Home, dust

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Brenda T.

7:18AM PDT on Jul 23, 2011

I'm surprised that we survive!!

send a green star

Erlinda B.

6:35AM PDT on May 15, 2011

Recently I saw a scanning electron microscopic photo of common household dust. The whole mix looks scary on very high magnification. Prominently seen are pollens, dust mites, dog/cat hairs, painf flecks. The presence of lead is not surprising. But arsenic came at me from left field. I was not aware of this. Now I've got some reading to do.

Rebecca S.

9:26PM PDT on Apr 23, 2011

always learned most dust is dead skin cells.

Loesje v.

5:42AM PDT on Apr 8, 2011

Take off your shoes here is not standard but I do that when entering my house. Dusting.....just keep it clean always.

Eternal G.

8:57PM PST on Feb 5, 2011

Eeks!

Henri P.

4:47AM PST on Jan 24, 2011

cool.have to keep dust out.

Past Member .

3:23PM PST on Jan 20, 2011

Thanks for the fantastic article!

Kersty E.

4:12PM PST on Jan 19, 2011

Emmajade, well I would not join your barefoot club. I take off my shoes and put on slippers when I get home, but wouldn't expect any guests to take their shoes off, as they're not likely to carry slippers around with them. If you have ever suffered with cold feet like I do you wouldn't want to walk around in your socks on a cold floor. I always wipe my shoes on a doormat before entering a house. I like my visitors to do the same, but don't make a fuss if they don't. My cats come in with muddy feet often enough. It's not the end of the world.

3:36PM PST on Jan 19, 2011

We need to start a club to promote removing shoes before entering houses. It would be great because many people are more comfortable without shoes pinching toes!

On the other hand, where do you put those shoes outside if you live in an apartment or don't have a landing or covered porch? Maybe take a clue from the animal rescue workers who keep a plastic tub just inside the door to leave shoes in that may have become contaminated?

Andrew H.

6:33AM PST on Jan 13, 2011

I had a feeling I didn't want to know the answer.