2017-10-08 06:51:31
Bacterial species and other microorganisms that live sharing the spaces where we sleep, eat or clean ourselves can have a significant effect on our well-being and on our susceptibility to developing certain diseases. The use of detergents and bleaches for cleaning homes and offices has undoubtedly modified the normal microbiota with which our grandparents and great-grandparents were normally in contact. Our immune system is not used to so much hygiene and, in some people, it reacts inappropriately to substances that are innocuous and do not present any danger, generating allergies.
The few investigations carried out on the external microbiota have revealed that it is highly variable and depends on unsuspected factors: the materials with which the buildings are built, the ventilation regime of the houses and the use of air conditioning or the place where we live or work. As can be seen, the factors that affect the microbial community that lives with us are many and very diverse.
The arrival of modernity in homes has also affected the microbiota that cohabits with us. For example, it has been discovered that a yeast, called Exophiala dermatitidis for those who want to know, has colonized the saunas and steam baths of those places that have them, but, above all, it has colonized the interior of our dishwashers. Some scientists studied the matter and discovered that the natural habitat of this yeast seems to be the intestine of tropical fruit-eating bats. get stunned!
Recently, a committee of scientists from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report outlining avenues for research and future strategies to deepen our understanding of the foreign microbiota. Following these recommendations, a group of architects, engineers and microbiologists have already begun to collaborate to investigate these interesting and important topics.
We will have to be attentive about the results of these investigations, which promise to improve our lives and that of future generations, something that science, even with all its defects, has not stopped doing since the scientific method was invented.
More information on Jorge Laborda’s Blog: The domestic microbiota.
References:
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/what-microbes-are-hiding-in-your-home/
https://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_green_are_we_filtering_the_wrong_microbes
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=23647&_ga=2.120202383.60838453.1503842888-726740799.1503842888
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