ALLERGENIC MITES ON MINERAL WALLS AND IN TEXTILES

Abstract:
In the home environment allergenic mites are well known inhabitants of textiles and food. In humid dwellings mites and moulds are found on walls. In autumn (1990) textiles and wall surfaces were sampled in eight rooms of four dwellings. The same was done in winter (1990-1991), in seven rooms. Sampling was done with an intensity of 1 minutes vacuuming per square meter surface area. In autumn as well as in winter the total number of mites from textiles and walls were statistically correlated. Spearman rank correlation coefficient being 0.731 (0.05<p<0.025) in autumn, and 0.667 (0.10<p<0.05) in winter. In both periods a correlation between the number of house dust mites (HDM) from textiles and walls was also present (in autumn: p < 0.05, and in winter: p < 0.025). For both periods no association was found between the number of non-pyroglyphid mites from textiles and wall surfaces. The number of mites per square meter surface area was significantly lower on walls than in textiles. The economical and health relevance of mites on walls is yet not clear. However, in the Netherlands about 20% of the housing stock has problems with dampness and moulds, which can lead to development of storage and fungal mites. Therefore, in humid dwellings control of allergenic domestic mites should include mites from walls.