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Dust entry

Pollen-containing household dust

Household dust containing pollen particles brought indoors or resuspended during indoor activities.

Airborne form

dust

The form describes what is suspended in air at the point of exposure. A material can produce more than one form, such as dust during handling and fume during heating.

Health effects

allergic rhinitisasthma exacerbationairway irritationallergic respiratory symptoms

Evidence

US EPA lists pollen among biological contaminants that can be present in indoor environments and household dust, and states that health impacts vary with the contaminant and exposure.

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What Are Biological Contaminants?
Biological contaminants include bacteria, viruses, fungi such as mold, dust mites, pollen, pet allergens and pests (such as rodents, cockroaches and other insects) and their droppings and body parts.

HSE’s Asthmagen compendium reports that studies link environmental exposure to cockroach material with asthma, including evidence from bronchial-challenge, skin-test, and cockroach-specific IgE results, and concludes that cockroaches meet the criteria for classification as a respiratory sensitiser.

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page 122 · C40: Cockroach material — Summary and conclusion · 1
A good number of studies have linked the occurrence of asthma with environmental exposure to cockroach material, using evidence from specific bronchial challenge tests as well as the results of skin tests and radioallergosorbent test (RAST) measurements of cockroach-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE). There is sufficient evidence to conclude that cockroaches meet the revised EU criteria (1996) for classification as a respiratory sensitiser.

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