(Warning: This is not an article about Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass… Just normal household dust – which is really interesting as well! Who would’ve guessed?)
Here is your gross fact for the day: Dust is mainly human skin cells... (Seeing as we’re not fit to practice cannibalism it makes sense that we sneeze like crazy when we inhale it!)
A human loses between 50 – 100 thousand skin cells every minute. These flakes of skin gather in carpets and furnishings, dry out and then get lifted into the air by drafts or air currents. For the house dust mites (the microscopic organism living in your home), our dried out flakes of skin is a rare nutritious delicacy.
Suffer from asthma when exposed to mites? Here’s your second gross fact for the day: You’re allergic to their poo, which carries into the air and irritates your lungs.
Eeeuw…
- Everything you’d probably choose NOT to know about dust mites…
- How to control the little critters
- Dust in space? And we thought dusting the house would be a thing of the past once we migrate to the moon… Learn more about cosmic dust


