Road dust is more than merely a nuisance to those which have allergen hypersensitivity

Most Americans usually are not fully aware of the road dust problem that exists across the nation. This dust is of a new makeup from what's found around in most houses. The dust that builds-up around on the pieces of furniture is made from some dirt particles, but its main component is lifeless human skin cells which have fallen off the occupants within the house.

For any particle to be considered dust, it needs to be smaller than five hundred micrometers in size. This really is why HEPA filters are used on vacuum cleaners and as part of the HVAC units in your people's homes, they trap 99.97% of all particles which might be 0.03 micrometers in size.

Nuisance dust from the roads has a very different composition and source. This dust is produced when the soil is disrupted and made airborne from wind or even a passing car, contaminants in the air, as well as the intermittent volcanic dust that lingers around within the atmosphere.

There is little a person can do concerning the volcanic dust problem. The supply of the pollutant dust is the best place to manage that problem source, and road dust might be controlled by economical means. The main reason this is now so important is the specific makeup of the dust that may be kicked up each time a vehicle passes over any road in America. In 1999, a study was carried out by Ann Miguel, PhD. and Glen Cass, PhD. of the Environmental Engineering Science Department at Caltech in Pasadena that studied the hazards from polution particles on the roads. They discovered that over 20 diverse sources of allergens were at hand on paved roads alone that exacerbated, or would in reality set off, hypersensitive reactions in people.

The Federal Highway Administration of America has reported there are actually over 3.9 million miles of roads across our nation of which 70% is unpaved. The dust and debris from these surfaces can add around ten million tonnes of airborne material in the form of dust each year, according to the 1997 National Air Quality and Emissions Trends Report conducted with the EPA. The spreading of this airborne nuisance dust had previously been considered by the US Forestry Service. They estimated that for each vehicle that traveled just one mile down an unpaved road day-after-day for a year would place 1 tonne of said dust into the air that will cover an area round the road as long as 500 feet.

Common earlier road dust control measures involved wetting the roads down with water. This is an effective but momentary solution that's still used today. Since nuisance dust is becoming a greater concern, better road dust control products have been developed. These include using surfactants that last longer than water, but are still just a quick temporary fix. Adhesives are employed in some cases to bind the dust to the surface and seal it. An example of this kind of product is tree sap or lignin sulfonate. Chlorinated salts are helpful to keep the humidity level set to help reduce the possibility of dust becoming airborne from the sheer weight of themselves.

Road dust is more than only a nuisance to individuals who have allergic reactions, and products to regulate it are being developed and improved to satisfy this need on never-ending basis.

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Kurt Tompkins works in the dust control / road dust control industry for road dust and road dust products I also build products for night sweats and people that are sweating at night

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