Pillows Dangerous for Your Health

Roland Piquepaille writes "I guess we shouldn't be surprised by the fact that our pillows are miniature zoos containing millions of fungal spores, with some species able to cause diseases and even death. Researchers at the University of Manchester have studied the fungal contamination of our pillows for the first time in seventy years and discovered that these pillows were hot beds of fungal spores. After dissecting both feather and synthetic pillows in regular use between several months and 20 years, they've "identified several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow -- more than a million spores per pillow."

And how many spores....

[MetalliQaZ]

And how many spores do I inhale just by walking outside my front door? How many live in the rugs at my place of work? How many may be found in the seats at the movie theater? Millions. Thats why he have an immune system IIRC.

-d

Not that we Shouldn't Use Pillows.

[dshaw858]

Although I have no doubt that our pillows are "hot beds of fungal spores", I don't think that not using a pillow would make it any better. I mean, short of sterilizing your bed after each "use" (daily), there's really no way we can avoid this problem. Well, short of a self-sterilizing pillow... but that's yet to be invented.

- dshaw

Re:And how many spores....

[madprof]

Exactly. If this was worth panicking over then why are we not all dying en masse due to the widepread use of pillows across the globe?

What about Those Japanese Pillows...

[SirChive]

Aren't there some kind of Japanese pillow filled with Barley husks or somethig like that. Wonder if that would be any more resistent to fungus.

Indeed

[Data Link Layer]

This is why every couple of weeks or so I bleach the hell out of my pillow and wash it.

Just like the news

[pellik]

A lot of this comes accross as scare tactics, imo. Fungal spores are very, very small things. So you have several thousand per gram, and a million of em on your pillow. How does this compare to other non-pillow personal objects? Is this unusual? It would have been nice if the reporter commented on data from the negative control such as a pillow nobody sleeps on. Furthermore, what percentage of these million fungi are actually pathogenic?

Re:I prefer to think of it

[KiloByte]

Even worse, if you remove all the germs, your immune system will stay defenseless. You do need to be in contact with the spores if you want to be able to resist them -- and you will have to resist these sooner or later.

Fungus AmongUs

[drgonzo59]

My wife has bad asthma so we :
1.make sure to buy new pillows every year or so (the cheap synthetic kind)
2.wash them often in hot water
3.wash the pillow cases in bleach and hot water every week
4.use protective dust mite covers (not sure if these work for fungual spores?). The plastic ones should work too.

All in all it works pretty well. This article though seems to fall into the "let's play on people's fear of the invisible deadly germs" category. Everyone has been sleeping on old pillows made from animal feathers for centuries and millenia probably and we seem to have survived. So people who are healthy could just continue sleeping the way they did before. There are probably other problems in the world to worry about other than fungus in pillows.

Re:What about Those Japanese Pillows...

[jahknow]

I had a buckwheat hull pillow for about a decade (the longest I can recall using a pillow). I ended up suspecting it of giving me sinus problems so I got rid of it. Voila, the allergies cleared up and the sinuses felt much better. I had heard the buckwheat hulls disintegrate over time, so I'm not sure if it was that, fungi, or just a decade of dust. At any rate, I miss that pillow. As far as doing its job (supporting my head and neck), it was by far the most comfortable pillow ever.

Re:What about Those Japanese Pillows...

[Tim]

Given that those pillows resemble bags of cement (without the softness or warmth), I doubt that anything could live in them.

I just returned from a trip to Japan. The Japanese do many things well (public transport, food, bathing), but unfortunately, sleeping is not one of them. I'm pretty sure that "futon" means "aching back" in Japanese....

The Curse Of Piquepaille

[Y-Crate]

I was hoping that perhaps the editors had finally broken their unspecified "arraignment" with Roland Piquepaille due to the enormous outcry, but alas, they waited until things cooled-down from his 50 submissions a week, and are now once again accepting anything he submits.

This time, the only link to his "news" site is the link for his name, but I don't think that will last for long. By his 40th story this time next week we can be assured that a quick paraphrase....er..."overview" will quietly slip in again, and multiply from there.

To think, I almost became a regular /. reader again.

The really interesting thing is that if the editors came clean on a lot of things from the outset, it would allay a lot of concerns, instead they give us a wall of silence except when it comes time to ask for subscriptions.

Re:how do we "treat" this problem?

[HairyCanary]

Off-topic, yes, but here goes... There is no such thing as 1500 threadcount fabric. Nothing in four digits at all. What you got there is a cute marketing department that took two fabrics optimistically containing 750 threads per inch and wove them together getting 1500. Except it's not at all comparable to what real 1500 threadcount fabric would be like if you could make it...

Re:how do we "treat" this problem?

[EnderWigginsXenocide]

How to treat this? With pencils [slashdot.org] of course.

not that comfy as people think

[Frozen Void]

and not to mention pillows are capable distorting the neck when you sleep.

Re:how do we "treat" this problem?

[InvalidError]

Break out the aluminium foil.

Cotton can survive spending an hour at over 100C, fungi and germs cannot. Cover one oven tray with foil, put the second tray at the next lowest position and put your pillows on it. The foil should prevent the cotton from burning due to direct IR exposure.

I certainly hope you're joking

[dyoung9090]

Unless my sarcasm detector blew up, I'd have to say you're being serious. If you are, then here's my serious response. If you're not then... um... this is sarcasm too? Actually, no, even if you are being sarcastic, this is still serious. Well, I find it funny, as will everyone who knows people that waste money in hopes of appearing high class. There are studies upon studies saying anything about 380 for a thread count is practically indistinguishable. I know Consumer Reports has run their tests on high thread count sheets before and come to the fact that most people will never know the difference between "high quality" Egyptian cotton and a set of 300 thread count Sears special. Besides, the sheer fact that you simply can't manufacture threads fine enough to achieve more than 500 (I don't have the official scientific sounding number but without the source, and without the inclination to look online for some back-up, I'll err on the high side) thread count can't be denied. For the larger thread counts you claim to be purchasing you're actually getting two-ply sheets. Unlike toilet paper, two ply sheets do nothing. The sheet isn't any finer, softer, silkier or better; it's simply twice as thick, thus doubling the number of actual threads you can claim. I'm doing a disservice by saying its two-ply though; it's kind of like having two-ply toilet paper with a little stitching through-out to keep it together. I'm not questioning your apparent income (or girlfriend's income, or credit line, whatever the case may be) but $2,000 is already at the point where you're spending the money just to say you're spending it with no actual benefit (and I'm including the imaginary benefits, like the kind you get from calling cow crap manure so it goes from waste product to valuable commodity) so if you were told these sheets were worth $6,000 and you were getting a good deal, then congratulations, you saved $4,000 that nobody who knew what they were buying would ever spend. And please, spare me the argument that your tastes are just so refined *you* will know the difference and thus I must not be as sophisticated as you cause trust me, that is not the case. I have no problem paying for quality; I just have a problem with people who don't know what quality is. Besides, I can't remember ever running across anyone trying to peddle anything more than "1200 thread count" so congratulations to whoever is purchasing these mysterious 1500 thread count sheets but you would have been better off (a) buying 400 thread count sheets and (b) knowing what you were buying. Oh well, I suppose its better that their money went to linen-shysters and not terrorists, drug lords or politicians.

Boy In The Bubble Syndrome

[localman]

You know, we are evolved (or designed, heh) to live in a world with bacteria, viruses, and fungus. How did we get to the point where we fear our natural environment so much? I grew up with a mother who constantly disinfected everything including me. I had alergies and I had regular sickness. My immune system never got to develop immunity.

I'm still a clean person and people (women even!) tell me so. But I shower without soap and rarely use deodorant... I've found my skin works better. I don't disinfect everything around me. I don't get sick often anymore, and when I do it is mild and brief. I've been doing this more than five years now.

Anyways, I don't really care what's in my pillow. I'm sure it's full of fungus, dust mites, electrons and protons even. Who cares? There's also billions of bacteria multiplying in my colon. It's the way the world works.

I get the sense most people here know this already, but I just get surprised when I hear these kinds of stories -- like the one where they said there are more bacteria on a keyboard than on a toilet. And your mouth has more bacteria than your genitals. But it seems to work out okay.

Cheers.

Re:I prefer to think of it

[Jesus_666]

Which is why it's important that kids play outside, get themselves dirty and come back to a home where it's not SOP to treat every spot with antibacterial spray. The more exposure to germs you get as a child, the stronger your immune system becomes.
I know people who barely sneezed once during their childhood and who now can catch a cold from the temperature shift when they get out of bed in the morning, while people who spent half of their childhood sick tend to be more robust.

Re:I prefer to think of it

[Afrosheen]

This discussion about washing one's hands after going to the bathroom has already been settled. Generally, most men wash after, some men wash before, and some men don't wash at all. Then you have people who don't always wash at home but are freaks of washing when using a public restroom.

  Personally I wash before and after at a public bathroom..which doesn't prevent me from pushing on the dookie door handle on the way out, but if it's a pushy-door instead of a knobbed, turn-the-handle-door, I'll use the heel of my hand or my foot to open the door.

  When I'm at home, I don't always wash after doing a number one, but a number two demands it. And for those who will say 'man I'm never eating at your house', A. you're right and B. I always wash up before handling food regardless.