By Matthew Spieler
Carpet is truly an amazing product— and it doesn’t matter if you are talking about a base grade material or a luxurious, highly expensive piece of broadloom. It’s a key decorating item in just about any type of indoor setting, be it a home or commercial establishment; it’s soft, warm and cozy, and, most of all, it’s an environmentally friendly product—from manufacturing it to living with it.

Simply put, from being able to recycle itself to being re-used as a key component in other products to using bio-based or other postconsumer waste products, carpet is recognized as one of the most environmentally friendly building and decorating products around. It is also one of the healthiest indoor furnishings available.

But, it happens all too often. A couple takes their child to the pediatrician, and the diagnosis is an allergy or asthma condition. The prescription, among other things, is to remove all the carpet from the home.

While the doctor may think he is giving the parents correct advice he, unfortunately, dispensed a dose of urban legend. This faux pas inevitably puts a strain on the entire industry. Retailers are now faced with consumers who refuse to give the beautiful carpet selections a second glance because of a belief it is not a healthy product, including contractors who cannot convince the parent who is the designer for a major commercial project to incorporate carpet in the specs.

Despite public perception that broadloom can be a detriment to indoor air quality (IAQ), especially for people with asthma or allergies or are sensitive to chemicals, there is no scientific study linking them.

Try common sense

Before bombarding your client with scientific studies and other documented evidence, you may first want to try using the common sense approach.

Sometimes a bit of good old-fashioned reasoning is enough to make people see the fallacy in their thinking. For example, remind them the clothes they are wearing are made with the same materials as carpet. The fact is, much of today’s carpet is made from harmless materials—polyester, nylon and olefin fibers. Then there are the natural fibers such as wool. Again, the wool used to make that luxurious, comfortable piece of carpet is the same type that is used to make that warm and comfy sweater.

In this same vein, you can point out that if carpet was such a detriment to one’s health then you and every one of your employees would not be around to even sell them the product because you are exposed to more of it than the average person, yet are still standing. That even goes for all your installers, or the thousands upon thousands of people who actually work in the mills. If carpet was so bad for IAQ, shouldn’t we be reading story after story about mill employees dying from being so close to it every day? That is not happening and it is not some major hidden conspiracy.

Another bit of common sense is to point out the reason why carpet can actually improve the quality indoor air. Thanks to something everyone is familiar with, gravity, common household particles such as dust, pollen, and pet and insect dander— all common allergens—fall to the floor. In the case of carpet, the fibers trap these particles and reduce their ability to continue to circulate in the air.

In essence, carpet functions as a passive filter and holds dust, mold spores, pollen, pet dander and the like until it is vacuumed and cleaned. Remind your clients that the only way for a person to have an allergic reaction or asthma attack is to breath in the allergen. In other words, people have to literally stick their faces into the carpet and breathe everything in for a period of time to be affected by any type of allergen.

A person actually has a greater chance of being affected by an allergen from their sofa, bed or drapes since their faces are not only up close, but these types of textiles due not have the ability to trap material like carpet. Think of when you fling the drapes open/shut. That quick, violent movement disturbs whatever particles settled, forcing them into the air right where you are standing. The same goes for the sofa. How many times have you seen a small puff of dust kick up when someone flops down?

But what about that “new carpet smell”? Surely that cannot be good for you, right? Wrong. In addition to the most common allergens, scientific studies show new carpet is one of the lowest emitters of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the indoor environment and, what little emissions there are, dissipate very quickly. Even the state of California, long the bell weather for environmental initiatives, recognizes this.

In fact, the industry got so good at reducing VOCs, a number of years ago end users started complaining their carpet didn’t smell “new.” The old darned if you do scenario.

Another misperception about carpet involves mold. Truth is, mold grows in any moist environment where dirt and dust provide nutrients. When carpet is kept clean and dry, mold, which is a living fungus, simply cannot grow on synthetic fibers. In most cases, the mold people associate with carpet is actually from the subfloor.

Again, common sense would dictate why. When mold is present, it is usually found underneath the carpet. Anyone who has ever seen mold knows its growth is not limited to one direction—just look up at the vents in an average office. So, if the carpet was the reason for the mold, shouldn’t the fungus be seen on the surface fibers and not just trapped underneath?

The simple fact is it is very hard to grow mold on carpet.

Just the facts

While the common sense approach is probably the best way to start trying to convince a buyer that carpet is not harmful to them or their indoor environment, sometimes you will be asked to still “prove it.”

If that time comes, don’t worry. There are numerous studies that actually disprove any correlation.

The most famous of these is a 15-year Swedish study that found no link between carpet usage and the incidence of allergy or asthma. Begun in 1975, the research tracked the product’s use through 1990 and compared it with the country’s allergy and asthma rates during this same period. During the course of the study, carpet’s market share dropped precipitously— at the start it hovered around 40% and by 1992 had fallen to 2%. The reasons for this drop are many but the main culprit was a public outcry about carpet being the source of increasing allergy and asthma attacks in the country.

But while the overall use of broadloom throughout the country shrunk to almost nothing, allergy and asthma not only continued to climb, but by the mid-1980s allergic reactions began to skyrocket. By this point, the amount of carpet used each year had already dropped in half since the start of the research project. Put simply, over the 15-year period, carpet usage in Sweden decreased by 70% while allergy reactions in the general population increased by 30%.

Adding to the Swedish study’s findings, in 2002 an 18-nation study of nearly 20,000 people found a statistical relationship between carpeted bedrooms and reduced asthma and allergy symptoms and improved breathing. A year later, a study of more than 4,600 school children in New Jersey found that having carpet in a child’s bedroom was associated with fewer missed school days and less need for asthma medication.

There is much more data supporting this from studies done within the U.S. and around the world. Tremendous advances have been made in the manufacture of carpet over the last 20 years making it greener and healthier than ever before.

The Carpet & Rug Institute is an invaluable resource of facts and sound advice to counter misconceptions about carpet as well as provide tips on the best vacuum cleaners and carpet cleaning practices (carpetrug.org).

Which brings up one last bit of common sense. Carpet needs to be properly maintained for it to be the most effective. In fact, manufacturers are tying proper cleaning and maintenance into their warranties as they realize end users need to protect their investment, just like you would with any other synthetic material, such as clothing.

In the end, keep in mind that many people and businesses would actually love to use carpet in their decorating but may need fact- based reassurance in light of so much misinformation out there. Don’t be reluctant to share the facts.