Posted on 11/12/2002 9:57:49 AM PST by Pharmboy
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents looking for the culprit behind their child's allergy to house dust and cockroaches should consider their child's day care center or school as a possible source of exposure to such allergens, study findings suggest.
"Our results indicate that day care centers and schools should be considered as targets for environmental interventions aimed at decreasing allergen exposure," write lead study author Dr. Vera E. V. Rullo of the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and her colleagues.
Rullo and her team assessed the level of house dust mite, cockroach, cat and dog allergens in vacuumed dust samples collected from 60 public child-care facilities in Brazil, including day care centers, preschools, kindergartens and elementary schools. The samples were vacuumed from the facilities' bedding, floors, chairs and tables.
Overall, roughly two thirds of samples collected from day care centers and preschools had levels of house dust mite allergens that were greater than the threshold 2 microgram per gram of dust, they report in the October issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The same was true of only 9% of kindergartens and 2% of elementary schools.
This discrepancy in levels of house dust allergens, however, can largely be explained by the bedding materials that were present in day care centers and preschools, the report indicates.
Cat and dog allergen levels were generally low in most of the dust samples. Cockroach allergen levels, however, were highest in samples collected from elementary school floors, in comparison to day care center and preschool floors.
Levels of endotoxin--toxic bacterial components that can be found in house dust--were three times higher in day care centers and preschools than in elementary schools, study findings indicate.
Further, levels of the various allergens remained generally consistent, regardless of whether assessments were made before the children arrived in the morning, after they left in the late afternoon, or after the buildings had been cleaned, the researchers note.
"These results suggest that current cleaning procedures carried out in these facilities might not have been sufficient for decreasing mite and cockroach allergen and endotoxin levels and that the presence of children throughout the day had no effect on allergen levels," Rullo and her team write.
In light of the findings, "recommendations for mite allergen avoidance should include appropriate care of bedding in day care centers and preschools," they conclude.
SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2002;110:582-588.
LOL!!!!!
And another point on the allergies. Most everyone here in Austin has allegies this time of year..day care or not.
Mine, too.
She homeschools 3 boys with my daughter, our 5th child, due to arrive in December.
Congrats to you and your wife.
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