Effect of freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil on house dust mites in soft toys

• Published in: Pediatric allergy and immunology Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 638 - 641
• Main Authors: Chang, Chin-Fu, Wu, Francis Fu-Sheng, Chen, Chi-Ying, Crane, Julian, Siebers, Rob
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2011; Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Allergens; Animals; Antigens, Dermatophagoides - immunology; Biological and medical sciences; Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus; Drying; Eucalyptus; eucalyptus oil; Freezing; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; General aspects; Heat; Hot Temperature; house dust mite; Hypersensitivity; Hypersensitivity - prevention & control; Infants; Medical sciences; Monoterpenes; Oil; Oils, Volatile; Pediatrics; Play and Playthings; Pyroglyphidae - immunology; Risk factors; Sarcoidosis. Granulomatous diseases of unproved etiology. Connective tissue diseases. Elastic tissue diseases. Vasculitis; toys; Allergy; Immunopathology; Pediatrics; toys; house dust mite; House dust; Mite; Washing; Freezing; allergens; Eucalyptus; Oil; Immunology; drying; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Myrtaceae; Spermatophyta; eucalyptus oil; Allergen
• ISSN: 0905-6157; 1399-3038
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-3038.2011.01144.x

To cite this article: Chang C‐F, Wu FF‐S, Chen C‐Y, Crane J, Siebers R. Effect of freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil on house dust mites in soft toys. Pediatric Allergy Immunology 2011; 22: 638–641. Soft toys are a major source of house dust mites (HDM) and HDM allergens, and sleeping with soft toys is a significant risk factor for HDM sensitization. We studied three techniques to eliminate HDM from soft toys, namely freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil. Thirty‐six toys (12 in each treatment group) were enumerated for live HDM by the heat escape method before and after freezing overnight, hot tumble drying for 1 h and washing in 0.2% to 0.4% eucalyptus oil. Freezing, hot tumble drying and washing with eucalyptus oil resulted in significant reductions in live HDM, an average reduction of 95.1%, 89.1% and 95.1%, respectively. Additionally, washing with eucalyptus oil resulted in a significant reduction in HDM allergens as well from a geometric mean of 9.12 μg/g to 0.37 μg/g (p = 0.033). These three HDM elimination techniques give parents of infants effective and acceptable methods of limiting HDM exposure.