How much dust do we consume

Large dust particles tend to be trapped in the nose and mouth when you breathe them in and can be readily breathed out or swallowed harmlessly.

Very small dust particles are more likely to penetrate deeper into the lungs while ultrafine particles can be absorbed directly into the blood stream. The type and size of a dust particle influences how harmful dust is to human health. The possible amount of dust present in the air and how long you have been exposed to it are also important factors. There is stronger evidence of long term health effects from PM2.

The type of dust varies with location and possibly even with time of day. For people with respiratory conditions like asthma , chronic obstructive airways disease COAD or emphysema even small increases in dust concentration can make their symptoms worse. Currently it cannot be confirmed that dust exposure causes asthma to develop, however breathing in high concentrations of dust over many years is thought to reduce lung function in the long term and contribute to disorders like chronic bronchitis and heart and lung disorders.

Breathing low levels of household or urban dust does not cause health problems in most individuals. Anyone who is exposed to high levels of dust may be affected — the longer you breathe in the dust, then the greater the chance that it will affect your health. The Department of Health recommends that you think about using dust control and personal protective equipment whenever you undertake dusty activities at home or at work. People more likely to develop health problems from long term exposure to high levels of dust include:.

Anyone who regularly experiences shortness of breath or hay fever type symptoms from breathing dust should discuss these symptoms with their doctor. Australia controls dust levels in the air where people live through a range of measures. The DWER monitors air quality external site , including dust, across the Perth metropolitan and major rural areas.

The DWER investigates incidents where the standards are exceeded. The DWER licences all industry and activities external site that emit pollutants into the environment. Either the DWER or the Environmental Protection Agency EPA external site can impose conditions on a company that restrict the amount of dust particles that their activities can emit into the air. Companies must monitor their emissions and routinely report the information back to DWER.

Other dust control measures include planning conditions around the development of residential areas close to emission sources. Planning conditions might include:. These measures help to dissipate dust and other pollutants and together with air quality standards are highly effective for reducing dust impacts on communities. Treatment depends on the diagnosis. A physician may run blood tests to determine if the reason for the disorder may be a result of a nutritional deficiency.

If this is the case, nutrients that are lacking are supplemented. Another approach may be therapy to address mental health or environmental health issues. It is recommended that a resolution be sought immediately because if left untreated pica can persist for years and may cause irreversible damage. Symptoms and complications that are commonly linked with pica can include: Eating sand or soil, this potentially leads to gastric pain and bleeding. Consuming clay, which may cause constipation.

Indeed, Western medicine has traditionally regarded geophagy as pathological, classing it as a form of pica , the condition also attributed to those who intentionally ingest such harmful substances as glass or bleach. And yet clearly in Cameroon there is no taboo surrounding the practice.

Similarly, Young describes her surprise when, working in Kenya , she found she could buy packets of earth in a range of flavours, including black pepper and cardamom. Young asks me if there are any African grocery stores near where I live, in South London. I say yes. I gingerly put a small piece in my mouth. The grit sucks all of the water from my tongue, forming a paste that sticks to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter. I briefly entertain the thought that it tasted a little bit like smoked meat, before deciding that no, actually it tasted much more like dirt.

Could eating earth be making up for a shortage in certain minerals? Credit: Josh Gabbatiss. The clay calms the pain by acting as a gastric dressing. Not all dirt is created equal. Kaolin belongs to a specific group of clay minerals, and these seem to be the most popular when people crave a mouthful of earth.

Clay is very good at binding to things, so when Monique talks about it calming gastric pains, it could be doing just that by binding with or blocking harmful toxins and pathogens in the digestive system. Experiments with rats and observations of monkeys indicate that other animals may seek non-food substances to combat ingested poisons, and various traditional food preparation practices involve mixing food with clays to extract toxins and make it palatable.

Acorns are generally unpleasant to eat, for example, but the traditional production of acorn bread in both California and Sardinia involves grinding the nuts up with clay that seems to reduce the concentration of unpalatable tannic acid they contain. The second hypothesis is perhaps more intuitive: clay could provide nutrients that are not present in conventional food items.

Anaemia is often associated with geophagy , so perhaps eating iron-rich soil is an instinctive attempt to remedy iron deficiency.