An article in the February 18 Wall Street Journal says, “The average mattress will double its weight in ten years as a result of being filled with dust mites and their detritus.” This sounds impossible. Is it true? Who figured this out, and how?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I contacted the Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote the article in question (“Those Costly Weapons Against Dust Mites May Not Be Worth It”). She said she’d gotten this amazing-if-true-but-don’t-bet-the-rent story from a source at Ohio State University who was quoted elsewhere in the article. I tried reaching Emmett Glass, described in the story as “an OSU research associate leading the university’s ongoing Dust Mite Management Study.” So far he’s eluded my clutches, but one of his colleagues told me, “I did hear Paul Harvey say that a person sheds 40 pounds of skin scales in a lifetime.” Not to cast aspersions on a fellow media luminary, but my feeling is: Paul Harvey quotes scientist = good; scientist quotes Paul Harvey = bad.
Next I got in touch with a bunch of bug, allergy, and dust-mite experts, some of whom had been quoted in the Wall Street Journal article. Unsurprisingly, all dismissed the idea that there were mounds of mites in mattresses. “It’s nonsense,” said mite authority Larry Arlian, professor of biological sciences, microbiology, and immunology at Wright State University. “I don’t know where that originated. They’re not that prolific.”
