The following pages contain this image or document
Child health: House dust sometimes polluted
Which pollutants are in the house dust of family homes with children? Updated information on the topic can be found in the Federal Environment Agency’s (UBA) report on house dust (Hausstaub), carried out as part of the German Environmental Survey of Children (GerES IV). Researchers detected substances whose production and uses in some cases have been banned for years on account of their harmfulness. They include the mosquito repellent Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT), or the wood preservative Pentachlorophenol (PCP). DDT was found in 39 per cent, and PCP in as many as 83 per cent of house dust samples. UBA collected the data between May 2003 and 2006 from 600 households with children. UBA will evaluate and publish data on other pollutants, as the researchers seek to identify the other pollutants that house dust is contaminated with and what the possible sources are. read more
