Asthma and Carpets

I am not a doctor, but I have suffered from Asthma all my life and worked with Carpets, Wood flooring and vinyls since I left school and all the information on the effects of carpets and it’s impact on Asthmatics is very confusing. I can only tell you about my experience.

When I first moved to Lutterworth my Asthma was very bad and the Doctor categorically said I must stop working with Carpets because that was the problem.  It hadn’t been a problem for the previous 10 years of fitting carpets and I wasn’t fitting carpets when I first developed Asthma so I didn’t think this was right.  So I started to look at the times and dates when my Asthma was bad.  I now know the following about the triggers of my Asthma, which are:

• Stress – I had just moved home and was trying to build my flooring business in the Lutterworth Area.
• Time of Year – it was May and I now know that the Oilseed Rape blossom makes my Asthma bad.

The key to which type of flooring Asthma sufferers should have comes down to knowing what triggers their Asthma. So before you ditch the carpet, try and work out what makes your Asthma worse.  If  it is the carpet, then swap it for Laminate, Wood or Vinyl.  Whatever type of flooring you have if it is dust that triggers your asthma you need love cleaning and vacuuming to keep it down.

There have been many studies on the relationships between different flooring types and Asthma attacks.  Go to the  Carpet and Rug Institute who have put together a good list of research papers and videos on this topic.