Anti-mite Covers: Potential Criteria for Materials Used Against Dust Mites

Abstract

There are many types of material used to construct bedding encasing for dust mite and allergen protection, but relatively few have been evaluated for their anti-mite properties. This study surveyed the anti-mite/allergen properties and physical characteristics of covers with a view towards establishing potential parameters for evaluating the efficacy of such encasings. Fifty-three covers advertised as mite-proof were randomly purchased from local markets found in ten different countries. All fabrics were evaluated for their ability to block the movement of allergens and live mites. Air permeability, dust leakage, and thread count, where applicable, were also measured. The major finding was that plastic and the tightly woven covers completely prevented mite penetration while exhibiting > 99 % allergen impenetrability. The film-coated fabrics, the mixed type, and the acaricidal-coated non-woven were successful in blocking allergens, but were commonly observed to allow some mite penetration. For the tightly woven fabrics, dust leakage and air permeability were minimal, while thread count was uniformly high. Cotton bed sheets were completely penetrable by mites and allergens. Overall, allergen impenetrability was negatively associated with dust leakage, thread count, and air permeability. Thread count also exhibited inverse relationships between dust leakage and air permeability. Dust leakage and air permeability were positively associated. The optimal characteristics for effective encasings include tightly woven covers with allergen impenetrability > 99 %, resistance to live mite penetration, dust leakage of < 4 %, air permeability between 2 and 6 cm 3 /sec/cm 2 , a thread count ≥ 246/in 2 , and a pore size of 2-10 µm.

A preliminary study of the acaricidal activity of clove oil, Eugenia caryophyllus

“…Of 4 common Thai mattresses, mite allergen permeability was higher in kapock and synthetic mattresses than coconut and polyurethane mattresses. 18 It may be speculated that if the clove oil solution was applied to any of the above mentioned Thai mattresses as well as to tightly woven synthetic fibers comprising a mattress encasement (which has been demonstrated to prevent mite penetration 19 and has a 98.5% allergen impenetrability), 20 enhanced protection from mites and their allergens might accrue, thereby reducing the risk of developing allergic symptomatolgy.…”

Resistance of Commercial Bed Covers against Faecal Pellets of House Dust Mites: Behaviour of Seams and Zippers

“…When looking at several materials commercially available, the question of quality regarding the HDM protection is often overlooked. Thus, bed covers of various materials and with different construction techniques can be found, most of which focus on the resistance of cover fabric versus HDM and their allergens [13]. The leak rate of covers goes back to work of Vaughan et al, who studied the permeability of woven and nonwoven fabrics by measuring the pressure gradient across the fabric [14].…”

“…There are comprehensive methodological studies addressing the barrier performance of encasings [13]. However, test approaches in these studies evaluated the resistance of the fabric using either living HDM or dust collections and were run exclusively on samples of the textile surface, to determine the penetration Journal of Textile Science and Technology level of the cover.…”

“…To our knowledge, at this point no test approach has been set up which separately assesses each single component of bed covers for its barrier effect to block the passage of allergens. In contrast to other test methods which strain samples using house dust endowed with HDM spent medium[13], we thought to stress textile surfaces, seams and zippers with an inoculum of pu-…”

Effect of bioactive modified nonwoven systems on the development of house dust mitesDermatophagoides farinae(Acari: Pyroglyphidae) in laboratory assay

“…30 In the case of textile materials, the research is focused on designing suitable structures and modification of raw materials and textile goods using different anti-dust mite agents. 31–34 Mahakittikun et al. 32 investigated different textile materials and proposed potential parameters for evaluating the anti-mite efficacy of such encasings.…”