Management of House Dust Mites of Indoor Environment Through Selected Non Conventional Plant Products
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Date
2010
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Publisher
MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
House is a place where people live and carry out different activities. Accumulation of dust is an
outcome of various kinds of activities and movements in and out of the house. These dust particles contain
minute organisms called “house dust mite” which are microscopic in nature and cause allergic symptoms.
HDMs are found in settled dust of furniture and furnishings in indoors. These are higher in number where there
is high humidity and low light intensity. The main reasons for their occurrence are improper ventilation and
faulty cleaning practices. Effective management of mites is possible by using NCPPCs. The objective of the
present investigation is to study the nature of household cleaning pattern adopted by the homemakers. The study
also seeks to find out the concentration of HDMs in indoors. Moreover, the study also ascertains the awareness
of respondents regarding factors responsible for the growth of HDMs and their management through non
conventional plant products components.
The present study was conducted in three zones of Udaipur city with a sample of 120 households. The
key informants were homemakers. The study was conducted in three phases. In the first phase households’
survey was conducted to gather information regarding household, housing, microclimatic, season, household
cleaning pattern, house dust mites concentration in different rooms and health status of the respondents. In the
second phase, lab experiments were conducted to test the bio efficacy of eight selected non conventional plant
product components (at different concentration level) on house dust mites mortality. In the third phase,
household experiments were conducted to manage the house dust mites of four different rooms’ furniture and
furnishings through three selected non conventional plant product components.
The results revealed that household and housing factors that affects the concentration of HDMs were
type of families, presence of children below 5 year of age, living habits of the occupants, number of storey ,
ventilation in the house, dampness in the house and presence of pets have found significant association with
HDMs concentration in indoors. HDMs concentration was higher in commercial zone houses due to commercial
activities and pedestrian traffic. More time spent in household cleaning lowers HDMs concentration in homes.
Higher concentration of HDMs was found in living room. HDMs proliferation depends on microclimatic factors
and season such as temperature, relative humidity, air flow rate and light intensity. Significant relationship was
found between microclimatic factors (temperature, relative humidity and light intensity) and HDMs during rainy
period. Various HDMs related complications faced by the homemakers were asthma, skin rashes, coughing,
fatigue, headache etc. Few of the respondents had severe complications related to HDMs. Although
homemakers had awareness regarding microorganism, but they were not aware of HDMs. The order of three
most effective non conventional plant product components in management of HDMs were Satyanashi, Castor
and Sahjan (at 7 percent concentration level). These non conventional plant products are easily locally
available, cost effective and eco friendly too.
Description
Management of House Dust Mites of Indoor
Environment Through Selected Non Conventional Plant Products
Keywords
Citation
Khatri and Lodha, 2010