Today’s concern from our readers is: I don’t want carpet in my house because it is produced with chemicals that are not safe for my family to be around. This is a totally understandable fear, if you have children, pets or anyone playing on your carpet constantly, you should be as safe as possible. This myth brings out a big fear in a lot of parents, and may lead them to get hard wood floors or alternative flooring to prevent chemicals from being around their children. However, we must remember, this is still another myth, the truth will help relieve a lot of parents minds we believe.
If this is your first post you’ve read by us, let me fill you in on where we are in our myth busting series. There are several myths surrounding carpets. These old tales were passed on from family to family, and likely kept a lot of smart people from buying and installing carpets in their homes. In this series of posts, the staff at J and R’s Carpet Cleaning is going to break down these myths and debunk them once and for all! For a listing of the carpet myths series, click here!
We got our information from Pelletier Rugs, a great carpet installation company. To read the full article on Carpet myths by them click here!
Not sure how to respond. Which chemicals are a concern? Because everything is a chemical. Are we concerned about wool? Or nylon? Or polyester? Ironically, these very fibers that some people are concerned about in carpet, they wear every day for clothing.
I don’t know why some people believe that carpet manufacturers use totally safe materials, and then blast it with a bunch of dangerous chemicals. Really, they don’t. Carpet is a very simple product. There is face yarn (which is commonly wool, nylon, polyester, or polypropylene (olefin); then there is the backing material (polypropylene or jute); and then there is glue. The glue is latex based for flexibility and adheres the face yarn to the backing. Furthermore, the latex used in carpet manufacture is synthetic latex, not natural latex. Only natural latex, because it contains proteins, has been reported to cause allergic responses in some individuals.
The EPA has done extensive testing on carpet, and has not found any link between carpet and adverse health effects
So there you have it, another myth about carpets has been solved. If you have any questions you would like to see us answer you can contact us. please click here!