It’s soft, it’s warm, it’s fluffy…and it’s one of the dirtiest things in your home. No, it’s not your child’s favorite stuffed animal–it’s your carpet. And it’s a lot filthier than you might think. While you’re doing your spring cleaning this year, you might want to take a closer look at your carpet for the health of both your home and your family. Carpets are ideal breeding grounds for bacteria. In fact, according to microbiologist Dr. Philip Tierno, the average carpet contains about 200,000 bacteria per square inch. That’s 4,000 times worse than a toilet seat! Considering the fact that the average person sheds about 1.5 million skin cells every hour, it should come as no surprise that carpets are so unclean. Once the skin cells hit the floor, they serve as food for germs–and before long, there are hundreds of thousands of different types of species residing in the fibers. “Rugs are botanical and zoological parks,” Dr. Tierno told Men’s Health.

Even vacuuming can’t quite rid you of the problem. Since your vacuum cleaner probably can’t reach the bottom of the carpet, there are bound to be colonies of E. coli, salmonella, staphylococcus, and other bacteria hanging out under there. And don’t think you never come into contact with them. beam central vacuum systems by electroluxEvery time you walk on the carpet or disturb it in any way, you disrupt the bacteria, bringing them closer to the surface.make wise cost of vacuum cleaner Bacteria aren’t the only pests hiding beneath the surface of your carpet. echo vacuum cleanerIn addition to the day-to-day dust and allergens that drift down from the air, carpets are also hotspots for food particles, pollen, and pet dander. 

Plus, there are pests above the surface too–those nasty stains and other soiled spots that are as unhealthy as they are unsightly. While you can try to keep up with your carpet cleaning by vacuuming regularly, to really remove the bacteria and soil that are harmful to your home, you should consider using a professional service like INTEK’s. In fact, professional carpet cleaning can help to: Most experts recommend getting your carpet cleaned professionally at least once a year. If you’re lagging behind on your carpet maintenance, no worries–just add it to the rest of your spring cleaning tasks! At INTEK, we make carpet cleaning simple. Our professionally trained technicians use a special hot water extraction process and biodegradable products for the health and safety of your home and family. Maybe that’s why we’ve been rated the best carpet cleaning company in Sioux Falls for several years running. Click here to learn more about our carpet cleaning services in Sioux Falls.

Already itching to get rid of those creepy crawlers and ugly stains? Please contact us to make an appointment or ask us questions.Photo by Chester Bullock/iStock/Thinkstock One of my pet peeves as a microbiologist: stories in the media that consist of “OMG we found bacteria on your keyboard/dishwasher/cellphone/toys/books/doorknobs/vacuum cleaner/gas pump handle.” Bonus points if the study isn't actually published anywhere, and double bonus points if the “research” was funded by a company that makes cleaning products. There are three major problems with this kind of story: First, bacteria are everywhere. It’s no shocker that anyone with a Q-tip and a Petri dish can find them on your cellphone. Sure, cellphones are covered in bacteria … because every inch of our bodies is also covered in bacteria. Second, most of these stories focus on “dangerous” bacteria without actually measuring any such thing. For example, most E.coli are perfectly fine. In fact, some are essential to have a healthy digestive tract.

True, some strains (such as O157:H7) are bad news. But simply saying “E.coli” doesn't provide very useful information. It’s akin to describing a burglar as “human.” Third, even if there are genuine pathogens (which by the way represent only a tiny, tiny fraction of bacteria in the world) on some of these household items, that doesn’t equate to an actual health risk. Recently I came across a perfect example of how bacteria are misrepresented in an article entitled, “Smartphones and Tablets Harbour More Germs Than Toilet Seats.” Which leads perfectly into another pet peeve and the motivation behind this piece. Contrary to popular belief, toilet seats are quite clean! They are of no use as a metric of how many bacteria you might find on a surface. Why is that, you might ask? One is that there just aren’t as many microbes on the part of your body that actually sits on the toilet seat: Your thighs have many fewer bacteria than, say, your hands. Additionally, we clean toilet seats.

So I’m just going to say it: I would lick a toilet seat before I would lick a cellphone. Though neither one is very likely to cause any harm. A version of this article originally appeared on the microBEnet blog, part of a site dedicated to collecting information related to the study of the microbiology of the built environment.Sign up to Dyson newsletters to be the first to know about new technology.Risk factor house dust Not as harmless as you think Annoying, unpleasant and unhealthy – every home has a problem with house dust. What many people don’t realize is that dust particles are made up of billions of parts, the greatest share of which is fine dust. These tiny grains of dust are anything but harmless to your health. They include pollen, house mite faeces, bacteria and mould spores. The fine dust particles can get deep into your lungs and irritate the respiratory system. This is not just a problem for those with allergies but also for healthy people. Find out here how to protect yourself from house dust or take a look at our video now.

Why can fine dust be hazardous to your health? Among other things fine dust consists of pollen, mite faeces, bacteria and mould spores. The smaller the dust is, the more hazardous it is to health. Fine dust does not only affect people with allergies, it can also cause respiratory illness in healthy people. It is especially dangerous for babies, small children and those with allergies. As children grow, the lung tissue can be badly affected If you vacuum at home then you assume your home is clean. But what few people know is that fine dust is also vacuumed up and then released again when the dust is disposed of. Which vacuum cleaning system can best protect you from this? Swirl® asked two test institutes to measure the air contamination when emptying vacuum cleaners – using selected models with and without vacuum cleaner bags. Here are the results: Bagless vacuum cleaners emit more mini particles when emptying and cleaning than models with bags. Experts measured up to ten times higher fine dust concentration in the air than when using appliances with a vacuum cleaner bag.

Three times as many unhealthy bacteria, mould and mite allergens were measured in the air while the disposal of dust from bagless vacuum cleaners. When disposing of dust from a Swirl® vacuum cleaner bag you have less contact with fine dust, bacteria, allergens and mould. You also have less work, as due to the lower capacity of the dust collector in bagless vacuum cleaners you need to empty and clean them at least eight times as often. How can you protect your health? Reduce your contact with dust to a minimum and keep your home clean. If you regularly vacuum your home then you can keep fine dust levels at a minimum. A vacuum cleaner with bag has the advantage that it keeps allergenic fine dust safely in the bag – so even when you dispose of the bag it cannot cause any more harm. Vacuum cleaner bags from Swirl® help get the best results for: The fine filtration layer keeps not only normal house dust but also allergenic fine dust such as pollen, mould spores, mite faeces and bacteria safely in the bag.

The vacuum cleaner bags have a Dirtlock® closure. This allows you to dispose of the bag without much dust or dirt escaping. The dust stays where it belongs: in the bag. During the disposal of a Swirl® vacuum cleaner bag you have less contact with fine dust, bacteria, allergens and mould. 5 tips for a clean and healthy home During cooking, your cooker hood extracts most of the fine dust particles. Pollen screens on your windows prevent dust from entering your home. Ventilating by leaving your windows wide open for ten minutes allows less dust, exhaust fumes and dust into your home than leaving your windows tilted open for longer periods. Staub verbreitet sich langsamer, wenn die Luft weniger trocken ist. Dabei helfen Zimmerpflanzen und Wasserschalen über/an der Heizung. Do without dust collectors. Decoration, heavy carpets and curtains magically attract dust. If you don’t want to do without them completely then you should regularly dust and clean textiles.

Clean in the right order. Vacuum cleaners with particle filters and Swirl® vacuum cleaner bags make vacuuming more effective and more healthy. It is also good to vacuum first then dust. Otherwise dust raised from the floor will settle on other surfaces again. How high is the level of fine dust contamination, which we are exposed to each time we dispose of vacuumed up dust or clean and maintain our vacuum cleaner? This was the question asked in two studies carried out by SGS Institut Fresenius and DMT GmbH & Co. KG for Swirl®. The experts tested dust and germ contamination with different types of vacuum cleaners – vacuums with and without bags. The DMT results show that dust contamination when emptying and cleaning bagless vacuum cleaners is over five times higher than for vacuum cleaners with a bag – even 20 minutes after disposing of the dust, the contamination was still three times higher. When emptying a bagless appliance the specialists from DMT measured a peak of ten times higher fine dust contamination.

For a short period of time, DMT found that over 800 micrograms of fine dust per cubic meter were released into the air. This is equal to 16 times the European limits for fine dust per cubic metre of air (50 micrograms per day) and greatly exceeds the values at rush hour on Stuttgart’s busiest road: At the Neckartor junction around 146 micrograms per cubic metre were measured. According to the SGS Institut Fresenius, bagless vacuum cleaners also have a lower capacity in the dust collector and so need to be emptied and cleaned at least eight times more often, whereby the user is also more frequently subject to fine dust contamination. The SGS Institut Fresenius also measured the density of mould and bacteria in vacuum cleaners – and came to the following result: The microbial contamination of appliance and filter is clearly measurable in bagless vacuum cleaners. According to DMT, the concentration of bacteria and mould in the air when disposing of dust from a bagless appliance is also about three times higher than when using a vacuum cleaner bag.