The Effect of Carpet Fiber on the Growth of Dermataphagiodes farniae in a Controlled Environment

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorAndes, Glenda Gilmoreen
dc.contributor.committeechairParrott, Kathleen R.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMollet, Judith A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberChen-Yu, Jessie H.en
dc.contributor.departmentNear Environmentsen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:50:15Zen
dc.date.adate2001-01-07en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:50:15Zen
dc.date.issued2000-12-11en
dc.date.rdate2002-01-07en
dc.date.sdate2000-12-18en
dc.description.abstractMites are endemic and allergy to mite excreta and parts is one of the most common allergies. Health care practitioners have recommended the removal of carpets from homes of people with mite allergies. Little, if any, consideration is given to the fact that some persons may benefit directly from the presence of carpet in their homes. In the allergen and mite research literature, carpets are rarely described as having unique characteristics and are generally referred to as a generic entity. Carpets, however, do have unique characteristics that define their construction, appearance, wearability, and cleanability. Seventy-two pieces of commercially available, residential flooring materials were inoculated with identical numbers of mites, Dermatophagiodes farinae, and placed in the Textiles Conditioning Lab at Virginia Tech. The mites and carpet pieces were maintained in the lab, under identical, environmentally controlled conditions for 6 weeks, then the mites were extracted and counted. On the basis of the results of statistical tests run on the study data, the null hypothesis, that there is no difference between the numbers of mites grown on the different flooring conditions, was rejected. Statistically significant differences exist between the hard floor and the nylon carpet, between hard floor and olefin carpets, but no difference between hard floor and wool carpet. Nylon was the carpet fiber that was most supportive of the growth of house dust mites, olefin was the second most supportive, and wool carpet and hard floor were similar in being the least supportive.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-12182000-153119en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12182000-153119/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/36256en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartetd.pdf.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectcarpeten
dc.subjectasthmaen
dc.subjectcarpet fibersen
dc.subjectallergyen
dc.subjecthouse-dust mitesen
dc.titleThe Effect of Carpet Fiber on the Growth of Dermataphagiodes farniae in a Controlled Environmenten
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineNear Environmentsen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
etd.pdf.pdf
Size:
377.5 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Masters Theses