What are those Airborne Allergens and Prevention at Home?
An Overview of Allergen Preventions
This Internet Intervention mHealth Model with Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy proposes, through knowledge, the basis of the six cognitive processes: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create that behavior change and maintenance will develop to decrease the substances that provoke airborne allergic reactions that cause asthma exacerbations. At the end of this learning activity, the healthcare provider will:
- Increase confidence and knowledge and educate the patient and caregiver on home discharge instructions.
- Understand and verbalize examples of various allergies to airborne allergens.
- Discuss examples of Dust Mite Allergens and how to decrease exposure at home.
- Identify examples of Molds found inside and decreased exposure at home.
- Explain examples of animal allergens and decrease exposure at home.
Once the healthcare provider understands and identifies the specific substances that cause your allergy symptoms, you should reduce your exposure to those allergens as much as possible. This is the most fundamental starting place, primarily when symptoms result from allergies to materials present in the indoor environment.
Dust Mite Allergy
Dust mites are microscopic creatures that live in pillows, mattresses, blankets, carpets, and other soft materials. They are often considered insects but tiny arachnids, relatives of spiders and ticks. They do not live on people but live near them. Their food is the dead skin scales that we all shed every day.
Dust mites avoid light and require at least 50% relative humidity.
Live mites themselves are not inhaled. Instead, the waste particles they have produced and the body fragments of dead dust mites that become airborne are inhaled and cause allergy symptoms.
What can be done to decrease exposure to house dust mites?
Efforts should focus on the bedroom, where mite numbers are highest and where most people spend a third of their life.
- Use washable blankets, and wash all bedding in hot water every 2 weeks.
- Replace comforters with a remarkable comforter manufactured with an allergen-barrier outer fabric.
- Remove the bedroom carpet, leaving a wipeable floor (hardwood or tile) if possible. Washable throw rugs may be used if washed every 2 weeks in hot water.
- Remove stuffed toys, throw pillows, pennants, upholstered furniture, and other non-washable, non-wipeable items from the bedroom. Washable toys may be kept in limited numbers if they are hot water washed regularly.
Animal Dander Allergy
Cats, dogs, and other mammals produce proteins in their skin that can become airborne and cause allergic symptoms. Because of their very small size (much smaller than pollen grains or dust mite particles), these particles remain suspended in the air for long periods of time.
What can be done to decrease exposure to animal dander allergens?
- Keep the pet out of the patient's bedroom at all times.
- Encase the pillow, mattress, and box spring in allergen-proof covers, to prevent previously accumulated dander from becoming airborne and being inhaled.
- Wash all bedding including blankets repeatedly, or replace.
- Vacuum your carpet with a vacuum cleaner that traps the very small dander allergens.
- Confine the pet to a small area that is closed off from the rest of the house, ideally one with a wipeable floor.
- Minimize direct contact with the pet, and wash hands after touching it.
- Bathe the pet twice weekly to temporarily remove allergens from its skin.
Mold Allergy
Molds are microscopic fungal organisms. They grow as networks of interlocking filaments that spread on and into organic matter, leading to their decomposition. When clusters of these filaments become large enough, they are visible as fuzzy growths of mold or mildew.
What can be done to decrease exposure to mold?
- Use diluted bleach to eliminate visible mold growth in showers and on shower curtains.
- Avoid carpets in bathrooms, or use only washable throw rugs.
- Keep humidity under 50% by using air conditioning — possibly supplemented with dehumidifiers — in the summer. Use a gauge to measure indoor humidity. Small air dryers may be used to prevent mold growth in closets.
- Avoid over-humidification.
- Allow moisture to escape from the home. Ventilate the shower and cooking areas. Vent your clothes dryer to the outdoors. Open windows when outside humidity is low.
- Do not store firewood indoors, and avoid live Christmas trees. Do not repot plants indoors. Mold lives on the bark of trees and in the soil.