Cleaning Products And Allergy: Part 2

Clothes cleaning
For people with allergies, there are two main considerations when it comes to doing the laundry. The first concerns symptoms (respiratory or skin) that are made worse by contact with mite allergen; the second concerns eczema, dermatitis, or urticaria that is caused or made worse by some washing products.

House-dust mites can survive washing temperatures up to 56ºC/133ºF. Although the mite allergen will be washed out at lower temperatures, the mites themselves will cling to the fabric using suckers on their feet. This is why all bed linen (sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers, and so on) should be made of cotton, which is washable at the temperatures needed to kill the mites outright.

Alternatively, you can add a dilute benzyl benzoate solution to a lower-temperature wash water used for bed linen. The benzyl benzoate kills mites, which are then washed out along with the allergen. Make sure that you follow the manufacturer's recommendations regarding quantities to use.

Benzyl benzoate is generally considered to be safe, but little is known about its effects when used long-term as an acaricide. If you do use it for cleaning bed linen or clothes, you may want to program your washing machine to give extra rinses. Alternatively, you could replace your bed linen with cotton items and reserve the benzyl benzoate for use with items, such as curtains, that are not in constant, close skin contact.

By a process of trial and error most allergic people discover which washing product best suits their skin condition. Whichever it is, try not to use too much, and rinse thoroughly to avoid any potentially irritating residues. If you are experimenting with different products to discover which ones are suitable, remember to rinse your washing machine out thoroughly to remove all traces of the previous one. It is also wise to try any new product on just one or two items first, particularly if the allergic person has very sensitive skin.



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