RACINE, WI - According to research by Host/Racine Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of dry extraction carpet cleaning systems, "science has not been able to establish any causal link between carpet and allergies." The company shared a comprehensive summary of its research and findings to help mills react with facts to a UK report that concluded carpets were to blame for a rise in asthma and allergies throughout the UK. The report, "Allergic Disease and the Indoor Environment," by Jill Warner (a lecturer at the University of Southampton), was commissioned by an alliance of organizations (Healthy Flooring Network) that is calling on homeowners to install alternatives to carpet in their homes.

According to Host/Racine's findings, carpet provides the interior environment the unique benefit of acting as a filter for indoor air by trapping and holding biocontaminants. The majority of allergens, soil and dust that carpet holds can be removed easily-in fact, a single dry extraction carpet cleaning can remove 75% of dust mite allergens, 85% of cat allergens and a majority of mold and mildew allergens.