Aspergillus fumigatus, the species most commonly found in the pillows, is most likely to cause disease; and the resulting condition Aspergillosis has become the leading infectious cause of death in leukaemia and bone marrow transplant patients. Fungi also exacerbate asthma in adults.
The researchers dissected both feather and synthetic samples and identified several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow – more than a million spores per pillow.
Fungal contamination of bedding was first studied in 1936, but there have been no reports in the last seventy years. For this new study, which was published online today in the scientific journal Allergy, the team studied samples from ten pillows with between 1.5 and 20 years of regular use.
Each pillow was found to contain a substantial fungal load, with four to 16 different species being identified per sample and even higher numbers found in synthetic pillows. The microscopic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus was particularly evident in synthetic pillows, and fungi as diverse as bread and vine moulds and those usually found on damp walls and in showers were also found.
Someone using a pillow for 20 years? Eeeoouh!
Professor Ashley Woodcock who led the research said: “We know that pillows are inhabited by the house dust mite which eats fungi, and one theory is that the fungi are in turn using the house dust mites’ faeces as a major source of nitrogen and nutrition (along with human skin scales). There could therefore be a ‘miniature ecosystem’ at work inside our pillows.”
Aspergillus is a very common fungus, carried in the air as well as being found in cellars, household plant pots, compost, computers and ground pepper and spices. Invasive Aspergillosis occurs mainly in the lungs and sinuses, although it can spread to other organs such as the brain, and is becoming increasingly common across other patient groups. It is very difficult to treat, and as many as 1 in 25 patients who die in modern European teaching hospitals have the disease.
Dr Geoffrey Scott, Chairman of the Fungal Research Trust which funded the study, said: “These new findings are potentially of major significance to people with allergic diseases of the lungs and damaged immune systems – especially those being sent home from hospital.”
Professor Ashley Woodcock added: “Since patients spend a third of their life sleeping and breathing close to a potentially large and varied source of fungi, these findings certainly have important implications for patients with respiratory disease – especially asthma and sinusitis.”
Look at this synergy! The fungus eats bug crap — and the bug eats the fungus. Can’t we get something useful from this instead of just letting it kill people?
Unless you live in an autoclave and cycle it twice a day you’ll have mold spores. You can wash most pillows, hospitals do it all the time. Eidicard apparently you never paid $350 for a down pillow, or you would keep it for years . 🙂
As a sinus allergy sufferer, I have the worst time in bed than anywhere else in the home. Here is what I have learned.
It seems to me that down pillows are less of a problem than synthetic. I have no idea why. You’d think otherwise.
Wash your pillow as often as you change your sheets. (Synthetic seems to handle multiple washings beter than down.)
Vacum the top of the bed and clean out the dust bunnies under the bed. Tile floors are better than carpet.
And _maybe_ closed-cell foam mattresses are better than standard box-spring set. . (I can’t swear by this but it seems true for me..)
Nothing beats Claritin!
They only studied ten pillows? How can they draw any credible conclusions from a sample size of ten?
I just asked my wife what our “pillow strategy” was — because I happen to like the pillows she’s picked. She’s always asking me if I’m “ready for a new pillow”; but, I’m slow to change what’s comfortable.
It turns out she doesn’t have a problem with frequent changes. She’s buying these critters from Target for $5 a pop!
Maybe if ppl didn’t tried as hard as they can to live in a sterile environment or force their children to live in an extremely antiseptic environment they wouldn’t develop such nasty allergies towards mold and dust mite crap.
So cheerios to us the nasty pigs for needing less Benadryl that the usual squeaky clean anal retentive ones 😉
Angel — you prompt a discussion I’d love to have sometime. Whether aseptic or antiseptic, it’s true most of our “modern” concerns for smell and so-called cleanliness reflect the efforts of cosmetic profiteers over the last century. Excepting usefulness in surgery, these are concepts alien to most of the history of human society.
Doesn’t mean either way is necessarily positive or negative — as far as I know. But, then, I haven’t researched the question beyond the record of history.
I read about a social agency that recycled childrens stuffed toys by first putting the item in a plastic bag in a freezer, thereby killing many of the bugs. It seems as if this technique would work for pillows. Does anyone know if freezing would be adequate to kill a signigficant number of nasty visitors?
Brenda,
Don’t count on it. Freezing temperatures will put most bacteria and viruses into dormancy. The most effective disinfectants are high heat or extreme vacuum. Also, most bacteria and viruses will not live on smooth metal surfaces for long, they prefer moist, soft, non-metal surface like pillows.
My wife uses a down pillow. It used to be mine before we married. It must be close to 40 yrs old.