Consumer Reports Finds Vacuums' Claims to Remove Allergens Mean Less Than They Suggest

While vacuum marketers continue to push allergen relief along with the usual cleaning,
results from a new Consumer Reports test show that those promises mean less than they suggest. Months of rigorous testing on vacuums at all price levels also showed that some new names and designs didn't cut it in Consumer Reports' evaluations.

Some uprights, including models from Bissell, Dirt Devil, Dyson, Electrolux, and Oreck, claim to filter allergens. Dyson touts an Asthma Friendly seal from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America certifying its uprights are "proven more suitable for people with asthma and related
allergic sensitivities," and many of its models carry a Seal of Approval from the British Allergy Foundation for products that "restrict or remove allergens from the environment of allergy sufferers." Vacuums that made those claims did, indeed, pick up allergen-sized particles in Consumer Reports tests. But so should others, since pollen, mold spores, and other typical allergens are large enough to fall to the floor, where they're easy to capture.

CR says it also found two models that quit -- the Electrolux and the Eureka Optima. The Electrolux suggests using its Twin Clean canister's "powerful brushroll" for deep-cleaning, which this model did well in the carpet tests. But the tough pet-hair test stopped it cold. The latest Eureka Optima was better than earlier versions at capturing larger particles. But it scored a "Poor" in the emissions tests. Two samples temporarily shut down after those tests triggered their thermal-overload protection.

Two less-familiar brands also proved disappointing. Koblenz markets its U-610-ZN ($440), upright for commercial use, yet it delivered less-than-stellar cleaning, won't accept tools, and was noisy enough to require hearing protection. Metropolitan's ADM-4PNHSF ($600), canister
proved fine on carpets and floors, but only "Fair" in our hose-airflow tests.

"With all the promises, it's easy to get confused when shopping, especially if you have asthma or allergy concerns. But at roughly 100 times larger than the smallest specs we measure, allergen particles should be easy game for practically any vacuum. And models that scored at least Very
Good in our dust-emissions tests will nab the bad stuff," says Bob Markovich, Home & Yard editor at Consumer Reports. "Our long list of Quick Picks and CR Best Buys includes vacuums that cost as little as $60 and proved capable at a variety of cleaning tasks."

The vacuum story is in the October issue of Consumer Reports which goes on sale at newsstands and everywhere on September 4.

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Researchers Develop Buckyballs to Fight Allergy

A research team has identified a new biological function for a soccer ball-shaped nanoparticle called a buckyball – the ability to block allergic response, setting the stage for the development of new therapies for allergy.

Allergic disease is the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States, and while various treatments have been developed to control allergy, no cure has been found. These findings advance the emerging field of medicine known as nanoimmunology.

The researchers, from Virginia Commonwealth University and Luna Innovations Inc., a private, Roanoke, Va., research company, are the first to show that buckyballs are able to block allergic response in human cell culture experiments.

Buckyballs, or fullerenes, are nanoparticles containing 60 carbon atoms. Due to their unique structure, inertness and stability, researchers from a number of scientific fields have been investigating the tiny, hollow carbon cages to serve a variety of functions. In this study, researchers modified the buckyballs so that they were compatible with water. The new study findings were published online in the June 19 issue of the Journal of Immunology and will appear in the July 1 print issue of the journal.

"This discovery is exciting because it points to the possibility that these novel materials can one day lead to new therapies," says Chris Kepley, assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at the VCU School of Medicine.

"Researchers in many fields are aware of the potential fullerenes have, however, we are the first to show they can turn off the allergic response and basic immune reactions," he says.

According to Kepley, who is the principal author of the paper, the buckyballs are able to 'interrupt' the allergy/immune response by inhibiting a basic process in the cell that leads to the release of an allergic mediator. Essentially, the buckyballs are able to prevent mast cells from releasing histamine.

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Study: Cigarette Use May Explain Asthma Epidemic in Children

The rise in cigarette use by adults over the past century may explain the asthma epidemic in children according to a study by researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health. The study is published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

The prevalence of asthma has increased at least threefold during the past several decades, but the cause for this remains unknown, according to author Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health.

The increase is occurring most prominently in industrialized countries, but now developing countries are beginning to experience similar increases.

“We have identified parallel increases in childhood asthma and cigarette use among adults during the past century in the United States. These parallel trends suggest that the increase in cigarette use may be a contributing factor to the rise in asthma among children during the same period through increased exposure to environmental tobacco smoke,” says Goodwin.

Approximately 4.8 million children under age 18 have asthma in the United States. Although treatment and asthma management strategies can help control symptoms, asthma is a chronic condition with no known cure. Asthma most frequently begins in childhood. The cause is unknown, but allergies are a factor in the majority of children with asthma.

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) inhaled unintentionally by nonsmokers has a higher concentration of some toxic substances than the smoke inhaled by smokers, such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Children breathe more air than adults and have narrower airways, so ETS is a greater causal risk factor of asthma in children. It can also increase the severity of their asthma symptoms.

Both genetic and environmental risk factors for asthma have been identified, notes Goodwin. Globally, six studies have shown environment tobacco smoke to be a risk factor of incident asthma. The risk for the development of childhood asthma was 2.5 times greater in young children with mothers who smoke more than 10 cigarettes per day indoors compared with mothers who smoke fewer cigarettes or not at all. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, especially in the home, increases a child’s likelihood of developing asthma by 63 percent according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Cigarette use, currently considered one of the most pressing public health problems worldwide, has become increasingly concentrated among economically and socially disadvantaged segments of the population, as well as among younger persons.

“Previous data that show more recent higher rates of cigarette smoking among lower socioeconomic status segments of the population within the United States are consistent with our theory, since these are the most vulnerable segments of the population among whom rates of childhood asthma are currently the most concentrated,” she says.

“Although cigarette consumption has declined in some segments of the United States population since its peak around 1981, the consequences and health effects of the drastic increase in the mid-1980s are still affecting adults and children,” Dr. Goodwin says.

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