“Sick of Dust” Report

Report Finds Hazardous Chemicals in Household Dust

As the growing awareness of the need for energy efficiency results in increased home insulation to prevent heat loss, there is an urgent need to address indoor air quality and chemicals exposure.

The first U.S. study to test household dust for a new and wide variety of chemicals found that we are exposed to a “toxic cocktail” every day in our homes, breathing dust emitted from commonly used products — and it’s all legal.

In the autumn of 2004, a coalition of groups in seven states got together to test vacuum dust for hazardous chemicals. We sampled ten homes in each state to find out how pervasive hazardous chemicals were in common house dust. We tested for six groups of high concern chemicals and found all these six groups present in our combined samples.

Find out which chemicals we tested for and their health risks

• Report with Appendices (pdf)
• Executive Summary (pdf)
• Report Text (pdf)
• Appendices (pdf)

Or download one or all of these fact sheets. (pdf)