Allergies And Your Carpet: What You Should Know

One of the biggest concerns that homeowners have about installing carpets in the home is their potential for triggering allergic reactions in sufferers who are prone to such flare-ups. But if you are among the millions of Americans who are susceptible to asthma attacks or other respiratory disorders, here are some important things you need to know.
The truth is that carpets can have a negative effect on allergy sufferers if those carpets are left unmaintained and uncared for over long periods of time. The most pressing consideration is that carpets can attract and trap allergens which may, in turn, trigger an adverse reaction in those who are sensitive to inhaling or coming into contact with such contaminants.
Your carpets are just like any other component of your home and when they are not cleaned on a routine basis, they can pose health hazards. Besides, the best way to make carpet last is to practice regular maintenance, it goes without saying that cleanings can also reduce allergy attacks.
Carpets Can Be Beneficial
That’s right allergy sufferers, having carpets put into any room of your home can actually be helpful towards preventing allergic reactions from occurring. That’s due in large part to the fact that the fibers of most carpets are highly effective at trapping the allergens and particles that can trigger an episode. This is because the carpets prevent those things from becoming airborne and inhaled when you breathe.
However, if you allow all those allergens to accumulate in the carpet that’s when it can be hazardous to your health. You need to vacuum and deep-clean your carpeting on a regular basis to eliminate all of those dust mites and particulate that has been gathered or else every step you take across the carpet will release those allergens back into the air. That’s when you can trigger a bad reaction.
The Importance of Routine Maintenance
When you allow your carpet to go uncleaned for extended stretches of time, that can make it much tougher to clean. Dirt gets ground down from heavy, repeated foot traffic, stains can set, and damage can begin to take place from both such impacts being left unattended.
So it makes a lot of sense to call in a professional carpet cleaning service at least once a year and, in the meantime, track down the best carpet cleaning solution for stain removal so you can tackle messes and spills when they happen. Adopting regular carpet cleaning procedures will maintain the look and feel of your carpets while keeping them safe and healthy for you to live with on a daily basis.
Just be sure that the solutions and cleansers that you or your professional carpet cleaning service employ to keep your carpeting in excellent shape won’t trigger any allergic reactions nor pose any other potentially harmful conditions for you, your family, or the environment. Taking this into account will also make sure allergy sufferers won’t have any adverse reactions to carpeting being installed in the home.
Manufacturing Carpet
Another concern that many homeowners who are prone to allergies wrestle with is coming to grips with the processes that go into the manufacturing of carpeting. But there are some hard and fast misconceptions out there as to the realities of carpet manufacturing in today’s world.
Back in the day, carpeting was known to contain small amounts of formaldehyde. Understandably, few people want something like that laid down across the floor of their homes. Why so many folks back in the 1960’s and 1970’s were cool with it then is likely a mystery to most, but then we didn’t have the information about its effects on our health then that we do now. As a result, formaldehyde is no longer part of the manufacturing processes that are utilized in the production of carpeting.
Most carpets you can buy today are made of materials like nylon, wool, polypropylene, synthetic latex, and polyester. These are all less likely to spark health problems and trigger allergic reactions. In fact, all of these material elements have been designated as safe by the Environmental Protection Agency and so you can rest assured that today’s carpets won’t pose significant health issues.
Now that you know the facts about allergies and your carpet, you can feel much better about living with carpeting in the home and, hopefully, this has served as a reminder that you should probably have your carpet deep-cleaned or, at the very least, it might be time to get that vacuum cleaner out of the closet.