Super Fitness Health BlogHow to Find your Perfect Allergy Cover
A key aspect in blocking dust mite allergens whilst you sleep could be the pore size of the bedding fabric. Allergy protective bedding, in the dust mite mattress cover, to the pillow and quilt dust mite covers, should be created and manufactured to deliver effective and welcome relief from dust mite allergens and dust mites allergy symptoms.
Imagine fabric threads woven together, similar to lacing your fingers together. The tighter the fingers are interlaced, the smaller the space between your fingers, like the opening or pore size where woven fibres intersect in the material. Yet concurrently allowing air flow and moisture to transpire.
Professor Tom Platts-Mills and the research team from the Univerity of Virginia, USA first published a study in 1999. “Evaluation of materials used for bedding encasement: “Effect of pore size in blocking cat and dust mite allergen”. The stated function of the study was “to develop a method for testing encasement materials made of breathable fabrics”.
They created a new testing protocol to discover a couple of things
– the ability of woven fabrics to bar cat and dustmite allergen and
– the breathability of a fabric as measured in litres of air per minute that may be drawn through it.
Why would cat allergen be used from the study, cats don’t reside in bedding? Cat allergen (Fel d 1) is comparably an incredibly small allergen in size, associated with particles less than 10 µm (microns) across. With the amount of this allergen in dust samples, the study provided a more rigorous test with the fabric&rsquos ability to block the allergens’ passage.
Dust mite faecal particles range between 10 to 40 µm across. Therefore, fabrics that will block all or most of it, are viewed most effective with regards to their allergen barrier efficiency.
Case study also devoted to mean pore size and results published:
“Dust mite allergens (Der f 1 and Der p 1) were blocked below detectable limits by fabrics of less than 10 µm in pore size. Fabrics with an average pore size of 6 µm or less blocked cat allergen (Fel d 1).”
“For woven fabrics, the key factor in blocking allergens is pore size. Our results show that a woven fabric with an average pore size of 6 µm or less will block common indoor allergens below detectable limits.”
“Our current judgment is that fabrics of 2 µm to less than 10 µm in pore size will effectively block passage of all dust mite allergen and would be suitable for use on pillow cases and mattresses.”
Mean pore dimension is best determined with a capillary flow test. Porous Materials, Inc. (PMI) New York, USA is the leading authority in this field. To determine further product efficiacy, the material used to manufacture AllerProtect covers continues to be tested by an independent reference laboratory and proven to form a powerful barrier to house dust mite allergen.2 Additionally, from the methods used in AllerProtect seemed to be tested from the laboratory. They could detect no allergen leakage through the seams.3
Dust mite bedding covers have come a long way. Back throughout the 1980s, allergen barrier mattress covers were made out of vinyl and then a vinyl-coated polyester cotton. Effective dust mite control barrier to dust mite allergens but really irritating to fall asleep on as the non-breathing covers caused perspiration, making symptoms worse for individuals with eczema and through summer.
By 1990, a write-up from the Lancet Medical Journal described a new barrier fabric which was woven from polyester cotton and coated using a polyurethane compound which allowed moisture to diffuse through but which blocked dust mite allergen particles. This provided the allergy sufferer with protection and greater comfort. However the membrane prevented air passing through, making the covers warm in summer and difficult to dry after washing. Additionally, the membrane would break up after several year&rsquos use.
Finally, in 1997 a study published from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology described a whole new type of barrier fabric that established new numbers of comfort with effective allergen protection. Pristine&trade fabric is a precision microweave fabric. The main element feature of this new fabric was the complete absence of any type of coating or membrane which had prevented the environment-flow through previous barrier fabrics.
Instead, the dust mites mattress allergen barrier property with this precision microweave fabric was achieved through the extremely tight and extremely accurate weave in the fabric. An additional benefit in the older coated fabrics is they can be trouble washed and hot tumble dried with no loss of effectiveness.
Professor Tom Platts-Mills’ study included as well an allergen barrier fabric &ldquonon-woven&rdquo polypropylene material manufactured by the 3M(tm) as of Propore(tm). This fabric is manufactured out of the fusing together of an dense mesh of polypropylene fibres which is then bonded into a polypropylene based microporous film. This film has extremely small pores in it that allow the passage of your limited level of air but which are sufficiently small enough to prevent allergen particles passing through.
Sometimes dust mite mattress protector and bedding covers created from similar looking fabrics are offered for sale as allergen barrier covers. Usually these are discovered to be made out of a non-woven polypropylene fabric but without having a microporous membrane, giving a cloth with relatively large gaps relating to the fibres. Needless to express, while the price tag on these dust mite mattress cover might appear attractive, they don’t provide an effective barrier to dust mite allergen.
1. Vaughan J.W., McLaughlin T.E., Perzanowski M.S., Plats-Mills T.A. E., Evaluation of materials used for bedding encasements: Effect of pore size in blocking cat and mite allergen. J Allergy Clin Immunol 19999; 103:227-31 The studies and more can be found Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
2. IBT reference laboratory, Lexana, Kansas, USA Report 2003
3. IBT reference laboratory, Lexana, Kansas, USA Report 2000
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