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Effect of freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil on house dust mites in soft toys
Author(s) -
Chang ChinFu,
Wu Francis FuSheng,
Chen ChiYing,
Crane Julian,
Siebers Rob
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
pediatric allergy and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.269
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1399-3038
pISSN - 0905-6157
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3038.2011.01144.x
Subject(s) - eucalyptus oil , dust mites , eucalyptus , limiting , food science , medicine , toxicology , allergen , allergy , botany , biology , immunology , mechanical engineering , engineering
To cite this article : Chang C‐F, Wu FF‐S, Chen C‐Y, Crane J, Siebers R. Effect of freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil on house dust mites in soft toys. Pediatric Allergy Immunology 2011; 22 : 638–641. Abstract Soft toys are a major source of house dust mites (HDM) and HDM allergens, and sleeping with soft toys is a significant risk factor for HDM sensitization. We studied three techniques to eliminate HDM from soft toys, namely freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil. Thirty‐six toys (12 in each treatment group) were enumerated for live HDM by the heat escape method before and after freezing overnight, hot tumble drying for 1 h and washing in 0.2% to 0.4% eucalyptus oil. Freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil resulted in significant reductions in live HDM, an average reduction of 95.1%, 89.1% and 95.1%, respectively. Additionally, washing with eucalyptus oil resulted in a significant reduction in HDM allergens as well from a geometric mean of 9.12 μg/g to 0.37 μg/g (p = 0.033). These three HDM elimination techniques give parents of infants effective and acceptable methods of limiting HDM exposure.