House dust from 35 countries reveals our global toxic contaminant exposure and health risk

By Cynthia Faye Isley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Science, Macquarie University
Kara Fry, Academic Casual, Macquarie University
Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, Macquarie University

Everyone’s home gets dusty, but is yours the same as house dust in China or the US? Researchers around the world have united to capture the world’s first trans-continental data on household dust.

People from 35 countries vacuumed their homes and sent their dust to universities in different countries, where it was tested for potentially toxic trace metals. Researchers gathered data on the human and household factors that might affect how much humans are exposed to these contaminants.

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