Your shed skin cells might contribute to dust, dandruff and fits of sneezing, but the dead cells are actually useful for something. A study has revealed that shed skin helps clean up indoor ozone levels.
Ozone shields the Earth from radiation, but it can also be harmful to humans when its closer to the surface. The pollutant can irritate your eyes, nose and throat, reducing lung function and inflaming the linings of the lungs, and worsen asthma symptoms.
Past research has shown that human skin goes a long way in reducing the levels of ozone in an environment. Your fleshy outer surface contains oils like cholesterol and squalene that go to work scrubbing the air of pollutants. The squalene molecules interact with, and break apart, ozone.
In a 2007 study it was found that oils on skin, hair and clothing would reduce the levels on ozone in a simulated aircraft cabin (although, the breakdown led to nasty byproducts like aldehyde compounds which can cause headaches). Human beings act like automatic ozone-scrubbers, without even knowing it.
Chemist Charles Weschler and his colleagues wanted to find out whether skin would continue to provide its handy air-cleaning service, even after it's fallen off someone's body.
Humans shed 500 million cells a day, and drop off 0.0028 to 0.0085g of skin flakes every hour. This means that over two to four weeks, you lose your entire outer layer of skin. Most of it becomes dust, which clogs up corners and sticks to tables and surfaces.
Weschler went to 500 children's bedrooms and 151 daycare centres (this finding was part of a wider study into children's health) to analyse dust samples.
He found that the squalene continues to do its business, even when deposited into dust piles from dead skin. It reduced indoor ozone levels by roughly two to 15 percent, without any humans present in the environment. He published the results in the American Chemical Society's journal, *Environmental Science &
Technology*
Still, don't let this study justify leaving your home un-dusted. Dust can trigger allergic reactions and carry nasty microbes, so grab a cloth and get cleaning.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
