HEALTH RISKS

Copied from Stanley Steamer's website

Safety is a crucial part of everyday life that most Americans pay close attention to. 

 However, some household health hazards can get past our guard and stay hidden literally right under our noses, waiting to bring harm to us and the people that we care about.

When we think about potential hazards at home or abroad, the carpet is probably the last thing on our minds. 

Carpets usually bring images of comfort, warmth and style to the average person's mind. In reality, carpets can pose significant health risks if they're not cleaned on a regular basis.

While harmless-looking on the surface, a filthy carpet is actually a world of its own for microbes, fungi and other irritants that can make us ill. Here's a list of possible health issues that you and the people around you can experience if you let your carpets go uncleaned for long periods:

1. Respiratory issues - Filthy carpets are robust habitats for tiny organisms that we don't want in our homes. Dust mites, volatile compounds and molds multiply rapidly as dirt, pet hair and human skin cells that serve as their food accumulate in a carpet's fibers. When these organisms are kicked into the air by momentum from walking people, they can be inhaled and various breathing problems can follow suit.

Resulting health issues can range from simple coughing and runny noses to cold-like symptoms, asthma attacks and adverse allergic reactions. A study conducted by Kuopio Regional Institute of Occupational Health identifies volatile compounds found in filthy carpets as a definitive cause of asthma for people who don't have the disease yet.

Mold that grows in dirty carpets can produce mycotoxins that make in-house air unsafe to breathe. Prolonged exposure can go beyond nasal irritation and result in neirotoxicity, hypersensitivity and even cancer.

2. Skin Irritation and Infection - A filthy carpet hoards both living and non-living irritants to your skin that can cause redness, itchiness or even swelling. This is made even more complicated by the fact that common house pests like roaches and rats are attracted to the particles a dirty carpet's fibers. These pests carry harmful germs of their own, exposing you and your family to even more disease-causing microbes.

A common but extremely annoying skin condition closely associated with flthy carpets is athlete's foot. This contagious fungal infection can be acquired by walking barefoot on a fungi-infested carpet. The fungi exploits cuts, scratches and breaks in the skin, breeds there and causes chronic itching later on.

Skin asthma attacks can also be triggered by dirt and dust in an unclean carpet. Some people have asthma that doesn't manifest itself as troubled breathing. Instead, they get itchy rashes that appear when a person who has the condition is exposed to asthma-triggering irritants.

3. Allergies - People who have pre-existing allergies can suffer an allergic attack when they come in contact with a dirty carpet's accumulated contents. Dust, pet hairs, fungi spores and tiny insects are the most common culprits. Itchy skin, sneezing and malaise are the usual results of allergic reactions.

4. Higher stress levels - Studies have shown over the years that being in an unclean environment can raise a person's stress and anxiety levels. While stress doesn't do any immediate harm, too much of it can weaken the immune system and make you and people in your household more susceptible to disease. It has also been proven that people with cardiac conditions run a higher risk of suffering heart attacks or strokes when they are chronically stressed.