2007 Volume 10 Issue 1 Pages 33-44
It has been reported during the past decades that allergic diseases including bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis have been increasingly prevailing especially in developed countries. The clear reason is still poorly understood, but it has often been assumed that the drastic alteration of modern architecture technologies such as airtight and insulating structure of housing has allowed mites and molds to inhabit and propagate not only at the limited season of high temperature and humidity favorable to these organisms, but all the year around. Dust mites are most likely to have the allergens that induce the allergic diseases. Clean hygienic environment of modern housing seems also to contribute to the recent prevalence of allergic diseases due to the reduction of “hygiene hypothesis”.
Influenced by lots of findings suggesting that dust mite allergens are the most responsible to the allergic induction, house inhabitants have been trying to eliminate the dust mites from the indoor environment not only with use of vacuum cleaner but also other modern methods. This review attempts to overview the current activities in Japan for the elimination of indoor mites by means of modern technologies including active ions, polyphenol, enzyme, and high-density cloth.
