Dust isn't just dirt
Household dust is a repository of chemical accumulation
Now you have yet one more reason to clean your house. In recent work, former UC Davis postdoc Christoph Moschet and Prof. Tom Young showed that household dust contains hundreds of chemicals, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, and organofluorine compounds. Around 90% of the chemicals they identified are human-made. Prof. Young, along with collaborators at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and Yale University have also found that so-called "forever chemicals" (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS) in dust leads to elevated risk of childhood acute lympoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common cancer in children in industrialized countries.
Their work has been highlighted in the article "Dust isn’t just dirt—it’s full of ‘forever chemicals’ that can harm your health" in National Geographic.
Additional authors of the first study include: Tarun Anumol of Agilent Technologies; and Bonny Lew and Deborah Bennet, both of UC Davis
Additional authors of the second study include: Catherine Metayer and Libby M. Morimoto, both of UC Berkeley School of Public Health; Veronica M. Viera of UC Irvine; Krystal J. Godri Pollitt of Yale University; Scott M. Bartell of UC Irvine; and Luann Wong of UC Davis.