Originally published 3/10/2005 in:

Lubbock Southwest Digest
1302 Avenue Q
Lubbock, TX 79401

Republished with permission:

A lot has been said about the dust bowl days of the 1930’s.  William Faulkner’s Grapes of Wrath painted a vivid picture of those fleeing the devastation of the dust bowl and the Great Depression.  Today, in Lubbock, Texas, we still have the occasional sand storm.  Some storms are so dark that they block out the sun; the street lights turn on in midday.  But is all of this “dirt” in the air really sand?

I renovated a house built in 1934 in the South Overton Park neighborhood of Lubbock.    It was remodeled with one addition in the 1950’s and again with another addition in the 1960’s.  During the renovation I removed 10 gallons of dirt from each 48 square ft. of attic space constructed in 1934.  The addition built in the 1950’s had only 5 gallons of dirt per 48 square ft.  The addition from the ‘60’s did not have enough dirt in 48 sq. ft. that it could be measured in a gallon bucket.

What was this “dirt”?  Was it sand and clay (inorganic compounds) or was it hazardous organic compounds?  Mold, leaf litter, cotton lint, cotton stalks, cattle manure and any other living, or dead, plants or animals, or their waste products, are organic compounds.

When the wind blows, the West Texas dirt moves.  The National Arbor Day Foundation reports from the Cooperative Extension Service that an acre of topsoil can contain “about 900 pounds of earthworms, 2,400 pounds of fungi, 1,500 pounds of bacteria, 133 pounds of protozoa, and 890 pounds of insects and other arthropods”.  Now, when the “dirt” blows in from a cotton field in West Texas, how much of the “dirt” is inorganic sand or clay and how much is an organic product?

Few of us are allergic to sand or clay but many of us are allergic to pollen, plants, animal, mold, and other organic compounds.  When the “dirt” blows it streams into older houses and creeps and seeps into even new and tightly built houses and buildings.

Heating and air conditioning units with forced air circulation pick up this fine dust and deposit it on coils, in ducts, on grills, on walls, ceilings, floors, and furniture.  The bulk, probably more than 99%, of this material is often organic.

Mold, mildew, and mushrooms are all fungi.  Mold spores are one of the most common and abundant particles in air.  We are almost constantly breathing in mold and mold spores.  Most people tolerate mold and mold spore at low levels.  However, high efficiency particulate arrestors, commonly called HEPA filters, may concentrate mold on the filter surfaces of forced-air heating and cooling systems.  Mold produces, and releases, gaseous compounds called mycotoxins.  These toxic compounds pass through the filters and are circulated by the forced-air system.  Some air cleaning technologies such as activated charcoal filters will absorb and remove gaseous compounds such as mycotoxins.  However, activated charcoal, like a cup, can only hold so much material and then it fills up and the mycotoxins spill through.

Technologies using ultraviolet lights and light-activated reactors can not only kill mold, and mold spores, but will also destroy mycotoxins.

With 1,500 pounds of bacteria per acre of top soil, a large component of the West Texas “dirt” is bacteria.  Most bacteria are harmless and some are even essential in healthy people.  However, others such as the coliform bacteria (Escherichia coli) are found in the gut of warm blooded animals.  E. coli presents a human health hazard when they contaminate food or become airborne and are taken in by breathing.

An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November, 2003, reported that 23 people were treated in a hospital after visiting a county fair in Ohio.  Initially, it was thought that the patients suffered from food poisoning.  After further investigation their illness was attributed to airborne E. coli of the 0157 strain from an animal show barn.  Six individuals were hospitalized and two suffered kidney failure.  Seven months after close of the fair, viable E. coli was found in dust on the rafters of the show barn.  E. coli has been known to survive in the environment for over 10 months.  It presents a long-term and on-going health risk. 

Machines are available that can kill airborne bacteria, such as E. coli, and reduce health hazards from airborne “dirt”.  These machines are available as stand-alone, self contained units, or as units coupled to forced-air heating and cooling systems.  Some indoor air quality machines not only protect your health, they also remove odors, smoke, and dust to protect your prized possessions and make breathing easier.

Nick C. Parker, Ph.D.
American Air Scrubbers, Inc.
Lubbock, Texas
parker@americanairscrubbers.com

American Air Scrubber technology is patent pending.