Dust from DIY jobs can give you heart disease and cancer, study says

There’s bad news for DIY enthusiasts – all that sanding and drilling could expose you to health risks as serious as heart disease and cancer. British researchers have even called for health and safety regulations to be revised to safeguard builders and have advised amateur enthusiasts to take necessary precautions.

As face masks are not completely effective in filtering out those ‘dangerous dust’ emissions, experts recommend wetting walls and other surfaces to trap dust before starting a project.

Prashant Kumar, who is the lead author of the study, says that, “Some of the most harmful particles are invisible and we shouldn’t underestimate their effect on our health, and on the health of those around us,” as reported by the Daily Mail.

Dr Kumar had carried out 20 different building activities and analysed the dust collected. It was found that ultrafine particles, which are up to 70,000 times thinner than a human hair, made up 97 percent of the particles of dust. It’s their small size which makes them dangerous because it allows them to travel deep into the lungs, which can trigger cancer.

These particles can also cause the hardening of the arteries by entering the bloodstream. The study also found that DIY increases the number of fine particles in the air up to 4,000 times.