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BS: Is it dustier on the Coast

18 Dec 11 - 08:19 AM (#3275929)
Subject: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Raggytash

Yesterday the lass who works the bar in my local stated that houses are always dustier on the coast, but could profer no explanation, the assembled company agreed that all our homes here on the coast were dustier than our previous domiciles inland but none of us could come up with a plausible reason for this being so.

Anyone any ideas ?


18 Dec 11 - 08:42 AM (#3275942)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: gnomad

Sand


18 Dec 11 - 11:16 AM (#3276009)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: michaelr

Wind


18 Dec 11 - 11:24 AM (#3276011)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Amos

Salt. Also, more frequent changes in temperature and air-density.


18 Dec 11 - 11:34 AM (#3276012)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: gnomad

Personal erosion, due to all the above.


18 Dec 11 - 01:55 PM (#3276087)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Bee-dubya-ell

It's not just the dust. Coastal residences also have many more empty beer bottles on their coffee tales.


18 Dec 11 - 02:32 PM (#3276108)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: katlaughing

We are over one thousand miles from the Pacific and Atlantic. Our house is dustier than any I've ever had anywhere else, including on the Atlantic coast. It's the High, Dry Desert with Wind and DIRT!**bg**Ugh!


18 Dec 11 - 02:58 PM (#3276131)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Jim Dixon

I would think the number of days per year you have your windows open would have a lot to do with it.


18 Dec 11 - 03:02 PM (#3276134)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: gnu

The house I am in now is unbelievably dusty compared to the last house. Of course, now I am single. >;-)


18 Dec 11 - 03:48 PM (#3276165)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: GUEST,mg

I live on coast of Washington US and there is almost no dust whatsoever..windy wet climate. No sand blows into the house either. and I am just off the dunes area.


18 Dec 11 - 08:13 PM (#3276262)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Jim Dixon

I think I'd rather have dust than mosquitoes.


18 Dec 11 - 09:32 PM (#3276302)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Jack the Sailor

You are at the beach more and dusting less?


19 Dec 11 - 07:59 AM (#3276477)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Pete Jennings

Nowhere near the coast but: the house we lived in until last June was really dusty (and had lots of spiders) - it backed on to a small copse and we were downwind. Our "new" house is about 400m away as the crow flies, away from the wood but overlooking a canal and fields beyond and there is hardly any dust or spiders, despite same prevailing wind.


19 Dec 11 - 12:24 PM (#3276597)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Bee-dubya-ell

A substantial portion of the content of common household dust is dead skin cells. Perhaps beach residents have more dust because they spend more time in the sun, which increases the rate at which epidermal tissue is exfoliated and replaced.


19 Dec 11 - 03:33 PM (#3276705)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Food for dust mites.


20 Dec 11 - 03:58 PM (#3277310)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Raggytash

I wouldn't class myself as a beach resident, our house is about 1/2 - 3/4 miles from the sea and although I love being out on the boat I do not spend that much time at sea or on the beach. I the majority of the dust in the house is from epidermal tissue I think I should be losing a significant amount of weight!

Antone have any scientific expanation ?


21 Dec 11 - 02:20 AM (#3277575)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: Little Hawk

I think it's probably what Amos said: salt.


21 Dec 11 - 04:53 PM (#3277928)
Subject: RE: BS: Is it dustier on the Coast
From: JohnInKansas

I can recall lots of dust when the street next door was unpaved. Even though there was virtually no traffic on that street, the dust decreased significantly when it was paved.

It may be more common to have "less improved" roads in coastal areas. Gravel, or "oyster shell" improvements are fairly common, especially in smaller towns, on the US west coast (at least north of California) and even light traffic kicks up significant dust that's briefly airborn but settles out pretty quickly. There is perhaps a tendency to cheaper road improvement where coastal weather makes repair/replacement more frequent(?).

On our east coast the population density dictates more prevalent concrete/asphalt paving anywhere there's any traffic at all, so the difference in dusting is less noticed, so far as I've observed.

Even where solid surface paving is used, shoulder widths can affect how much dust gets sucked up in the vehicle wakes, and this could affect how much settles on the furniture. (On a really primitive road, people may drive a little slower, so a small improvement like just laying down gravel may even produce more dust due to higher speeds.)

A couple of decades ago, several of the most-used roads between Wichita and Hutchinson KS (about 60 miles) saw a significant reduction in use due to a new "freeway" with good hard surfaces and fairly wide "breakdown lanes" along most of it, and the villagers commented about the reduction in dust that they attributed to moving nearly all the traffic to the better road.

Comment from someone where the dust levels seem higher would be needed to decide whether this is, or might be, one of the causes in a particular area.

John