Many years ago the told me at the hospital that in order to keep my asthma under control it’s best to wash bed linens at 140 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour to kill the dust mites effectively.
LG Washer - Does it have a sanitary cycle via downloaded cycle?
- Thread starter batman
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Killing dust mites is part of the equation.
It is true that you need quite some time to kill them - compared to bacteria or viruses, bugs in general are damn resilient.
The general consensus is 30+ min at 60C/140F or something like 10min at higher temps.
Keep in mind that drying in a typical vented dryer at high temp with max dry level will also reach the required temps and add to that required time.
With dust mites, thorough rinsing is very important too, though.
They themselves aren't really that allergenically important.
Their poop however is. And the heat doesn't really deactivate that much - thus multiple rinses are required as well. Or vacuuming etc.
Hospital disinfection, sanitisation and sterilisation all follow the same mathematical background.
A certain temperature, time and chemistry will om average half the amount of a specific contamination (in those cases usually bacteria, fungi or certain proteins - prions).
A certain physical number of those contaminants is acceptable for certain applications.
Putting those factors into numbers - all determined by experimentation and studies over the past 100+ years - allows you to calculate what you have to do to what.
Sanitisation in the EU for hospitals that would be:
- 85C/185F for 15min
- 70C/158F for 10min with a chemical additive approved for that specification - called chemothermic sanitisation
- 60C/140F for 20min, also chemothermic
- 40C/104F for 20min, also chemothermic
Sterilisation then upps that to over 100C/212F under pressure for several minutes.
That's used for stuff that literally touches your insides (dental practice tools, stuff in ORs etc.).
It is true that you need quite some time to kill them - compared to bacteria or viruses, bugs in general are damn resilient.
The general consensus is 30+ min at 60C/140F or something like 10min at higher temps.
Keep in mind that drying in a typical vented dryer at high temp with max dry level will also reach the required temps and add to that required time.
With dust mites, thorough rinsing is very important too, though.
They themselves aren't really that allergenically important.
Their poop however is. And the heat doesn't really deactivate that much - thus multiple rinses are required as well. Or vacuuming etc.
Hospital disinfection, sanitisation and sterilisation all follow the same mathematical background.
A certain temperature, time and chemistry will om average half the amount of a specific contamination (in those cases usually bacteria, fungi or certain proteins - prions).
A certain physical number of those contaminants is acceptable for certain applications.
Putting those factors into numbers - all determined by experimentation and studies over the past 100+ years - allows you to calculate what you have to do to what.
Sanitisation in the EU for hospitals that would be:
- 85C/185F for 15min
- 70C/158F for 10min with a chemical additive approved for that specification - called chemothermic sanitisation
- 60C/140F for 20min, also chemothermic
- 40C/104F for 20min, also chemothermic
Sterilisation then upps that to over 100C/212F under pressure for several minutes.
That's used for stuff that literally touches your insides (dental practice tools, stuff in ORs etc.).
Both dustmites and their poop are allergens. There were 2 separate tests for them. According to my allergist I’m allergic to both.
What I was trying to express with "that allergenically important" is that while they aren't completely hypoallergenic, they are usually considered the much lower "threat" in that context.
IMHO a moot point when you’re allergic to both. The outer shield of the dust mites contain a protein too that’s an allergen. It’s not the same allergen as in the dust mite poop.
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