Carpet and Asthma

In the last few years, the UK carpet industry has been dogged by intermittent bursts of anti-carpet propaganda. Much of this was merely sensationalism and scaremongering and was not based on any hard scientific evidence.

A recent study, conducted independently of the carpet industry has proved conclusively that the indoor air in a carpeted room is of much better quality than that in rooms with smooth floors.

The study, which used advanced dust collection and measurement techniques, was undertaken by the Germany asthma and allergy federation (DAAB) and the German society for environment and indoor analysis. It looked at the content of fine dust particles in the air over smooth floors in 186 rooms and over carpet in 104 rooms. The findings showed that the indoor air in a carpeted room contained less than half the amount of fine particulate dust than in rooms with smooth floors. Indeed, the average dust level over a smooth floor at 62.9 micrograms per cubic metre was found to be higher than the recommended European Standard.

The findings come on the back of other recent independent research which has supported the industry's claims that carpet is the healthy flooring option. Both a Pan European study and one conducted in New Jersey independently reported that people with carpeted bedrooms required less medication for respiratory problems than others. They also revealed that absenteeism levels were lower for children with carpeted bedrooms.

This flies in the face of the so called advice given to asthma sufferers to 'rip up carpets'. The message to asthma sufferers is clear - carpet is the healthy flooring option.