JPH0558826A - Mite treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To destroy mites in clothes, etc., and to detoxicate allergens. CONSTITUTION:Storage containers to put clothes, etc., are equipped with an ozonizer to ozonize oxygen in the storage containers and a heater to heat the interior of the storage containers from <=40 deg.C <=90 deg.C.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mite treatment device, and more specifically, it kills mites and their eggs attached to wearable items such as clothes, futons, blankets, etc. Alternatively, the present invention relates to a mite treatment device that detoxifies secretory and excrement.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is estimated that there are about 500,000 types of mites that live almost everywhere on the ground, and the main types that cause human damage are the mosquitoes (Dp), Dermatophagoides farinae (Df) and stag beetle ticks (Cm). , Aegyptian mite (Tp) is known. The above parentheses represent abbreviations, and these abbreviations will be used hereinafter. In Japan, it is reported that Df is large in the hot and humid summer and Dp is large in the loosely inserted winter.

The human damages caused by the above various mites are roughly classified into insect bites, allergic dermatitis, and allergic airway diseases.

[0004] The above-mentioned worm bite is a small part of the whole damage and is mainly attributed to predatory Cm, whereas allergic dermatitis and allergic respiratory tract diseases are caused by all the mites and their feces. The current dogma is that it is the cause.

[0005] In particular, atopic dermatitis, which has a large number of patients in recent years, is an intractable eczema that develops in infancy and chronically progresses in adolescence, but it is said that Dp and Df are the most allergens. According to a skin patch test, it has been reported that many patients have an eczema reaction when crushed insect bodies and feces are brought into contact with the skin.

Further, regarding allergic airway diseases. There are many reports including the report of WHO (1987: Role of the mite mite in house dust allergic disease), and it is recognized that it is the main cause of not only bronchial asthma but also perennial allergic rhinitis.

[0007] Therefore, various proposals for collecting and dying mites that live in the living environment of humans have been made in the past, and a typical example other than insecticides by chemicals is one in which a vacuum cleaner is provided with a mite treatment function. As a mite treatment device for this electric vacuum cleaner, there are known ones such as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-83112, which are heated and destroyed by a heater, and those which are disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-76743, which are destroyed by ozone.

Further, it has been proposed that the futon dryer has a mite treatment function, and the mite treatment of the futon dryer is as follows.
As in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-69128, the mites are mainly killed by heating (in this case, heating under vacuum conditions).

[0009]

However, the above vacuum cleaner has a problem that the removal efficiency of mites is low because the time taken to contact the collected mites with a high temperature atmosphere or ozone is short. It is said that if a mite is heated, it is easily killed, and there is a type of mite that actually dies at 45 ° C to 55 ° C in a few seconds, but Dp and Df are highly resistant to temperature, and the inventor's experiment (see Fig. 3). ), Even after 2 hours at 50 ° C., nearly half of them survived.

In addition, the dust collected by the electric vacuum cleaner
When 10 ppm of ozone was fed for 10 minutes, D
The survival rate of p or Df was 70% or more.

In contrast to the above, since the futon dryer has a long heating time, a considerable effect of killing mites can be expected, but it is difficult to completely kill the mites only by heating,
The above conventional example also proposes heating in a vacuum atmosphere by removing air. In addition, this time, although the additional test in this conventional example is not performed, in this conventional example, it is under vacuum,
Since the atmospheric humidity also drops considerably, it can be assumed that the effect of killing mites is almost complete.

In the electric vacuum cleaner, although the mite mortality rate is low in both the heating method and the ozone method, the mites are collected, so that the effect can be expected in removing the mites, and the futon dryer is Since the mite death rate is high, it can be assumed that the effect is satisfactory.

Therefore, it is certain that the above-mentioned conventional example is effective in terms of removing mites. However, unfortunately, as a result of such mite treatment, no clear clinical report has been made regarding the cure of diseases caused by mite damage. Although it can be assumed that mite damage will be reduced if the number of ticks inhabited is reduced, nevertheless, the immediate effect is not recognized, and the cause is the mite breeding condition ( For example, the biggest cause is that the temperature, humidity, food, breeding place, etc.) are not controlled at the same time, but furthermore, even if the mites are killed, no detoxification of the allergen is taken. It is considered that the current situation is also a cause that cannot be ignored.

That is, the conventional problem is to kill mites and to secure an environment in which the number of ticks is small so as to reduce the damage of mites, but no measures are taken for allergens produced by mites. , For example,
It is relatively easy to collect ticks with an average length of 0.3 mm with an electric vacuum cleaner, but it is difficult to prevent crushed mite carcasses and fine feces from passing through the filter of the vacuum cleaner. Moreover, the effect of removing dead mites or mite feces could not be expected with the above-mentioned conventional futon dryers.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mite treatment device capable of efficiently killing mites and simultaneously detoxifying allergens of mites. Is.

[0016]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the structure of the present invention, which is based on the above-mentioned claims and has the above-mentioned object, is stored in a storage container 1 for storing clothes M and the like. Ozone generator 2 for ozonizing oxygen in container 1
And a heating device 3 for heating the inside of the storage container 1 to a temperature of 40 ° C. or higher and 90 ° C. or lower.

[0017]

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described. First, the mite treatment device of the present invention stores clothes M and the like in the storage container 1,
The storage container 1 is sealed with a fitting lid 1a or the like, and the ozone generator 2 is energized. Then, oxygen in the air in the storage container 1 is ozonized by the ozone generator 2 to generate ozone.

Further, the ozone generator 2 is energized and the heating device 3 is also energized (in the embodiment, the oscillation circuit constituent resistor 23 of the ozone generator 2 also serves as the heating device 3). Then, the inside of the storage container 1 will be heated to 50 ° C. to 90 ° C. by the heating device 3 soon.

Then, in FIG. 3, the temperature inside the storage container 1 is 5
Using Df in which 10 ticks from each group were housed in a filter paper room together with indoor dust, the test ticks were raised at a temperature of 0 ° C ± 5 ° C, a humidity of 70% ± 3%, and mixed with mouse feed and dry yeast. The survival rate was measured by the average value of the times. As a result 5
As shown by the broken line, the survival rate was 40% even after 120 minutes when only the heating at 0 ° C. was performed, and when 10 ppm of ozone was added, it was almost certainly killed in 120 minutes as shown by the solid line.

Incidentally, "FIG. 4" shows that the humidity is 40% ± 3% under the same conditions as above, and under this condition, the survival rate is 25% and ozone 10 ppm is added in 120 minutes only by heating at 50 ° C. By the way, as shown by the solid line, it exhibited an action of almost certainly dying in 90 minutes.

The ozone generated by the ozone generator 2 used in the present invention has a function of oxidizing and detoxifying the allergen by its oxidizing power. For the oxidation of this allergen with ozone, it is desirable to contact ozone with a concentration of 5 ppm or more for about 30 minutes, preferably 90 minutes or more.

Demonstration of detoxification of the above allergens by ozone requires animal experiments in mice and the like. Fortunately, recently, guanine, which is the main component of spider genus nitrogenous excretion, attached azo dyes. It is now possible to easily measure the color by using a colored test tape. This method is used for antigen P1 (AntigenP), which is the main antibody of mites and feces.
If the amount of correlation with 1) is 10 Pg / g or less, it is considered that mite damage is unlikely to occur clinically, and the reagent (trade name: AC
As a result of measurement by AREX), it was confirmed that contacting ozone of 5 ppm or more for about 30 minutes almost detoxified it, but this measurement method also has a poor quantitativeness, so the ozone concentration is set to a high value. However, it is judged that the contact time with ozone should be set longer.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a storage container for storing clothes M and the like. In the illustrated example, a box-shaped container that can be sealed by a fitting lid 1a is used.
May be changed to an appropriate material such as a flexible bag. However, it is needless to say that the container 1 is made of a material that is not easily deteriorated by ozone and can withstand the set temperature.

The storage container 1 is configured as a box-shaped container capable of storing an appropriate number of clothes M in the illustrated example for the purpose of treating mites of the clothes M, but it is a large container such as a futon or a blanket. Needless to say, the bag-like structure may be changed when processing the object, and in this case, the opening for taking in and out the clothes M and the like can be closed by a conventionally known means such as a slide fastener.

In the storage container 1, an ozone generator 2 for ozone-converting oxygen in the storage container 1 and a heating device 3 for heating the storage container 1 to a temperature of 40 ° C. to 90 ° C. And are attached.

As the ozone generator 2, a conventionally known discharge type (silent discharge type / creeping discharge type) ozonizer can be used.
In the illustrated example, as is most clearly shown in FIG. 2, the current from the power supply 7a is rectified by the rectifier circuit 22, and the oscillating circuit including the oscillating circuit constituting resistor 23, the capacitor 24, and the transmitting diode 25 is used for a predetermined frequency. (1-5K as an example
z) and converted into a pulsating flow by a step-up transformer 26 (2 to 7 KV as an example), and its output is connected to a discharge electrode 27a and a counter electrode 27b. The discharge electrode 27a
And the mating electrode 27b, the mating electrode 27a is embedded in a dielectric (not shown) made of ceramic, and the discharge electrode 27a is attached to the surface of the dielectric in the form of a thin plate (electrode 27 as an example).
The distance between a and 27b is 0.5 mm), and this discharge electrode 27a
The air is contacted with the creeping discharge field generated on the surface of the peripheral dielectric and the oxygen in the air is ozoned.

As the heating device 3, various conventionally known electric heating devices can be used, and the set temperature may be maintained by combining with a thermo sensor. In the illustrated embodiment, the oscillation circuit constituent resistor 23 generates heat. Therefore, this heat generation is used as a heat source, in other words, the oscillation circuit constituent resistor 23 is also used as the heating device 3.

The oscillation circuit constituent resistor 23 can obtain a predetermined amount of heat generation by setting its resistance value to a predetermined value, and has a surface temperature of 40 ° C. to 90 ° C. (about 70 ° C. in the embodiment). You can use the one that becomes.

The heating device 3 and the ozone generator 2 may be provided in appropriate places in the storage container 1, but in the present embodiment, the heating device 3 is located at the bottom of the storage container 1 (actually, The heating device 3 is located at a position slightly above the bottom of the storage container 1.
Is provided so that the storage container 1 is not locally overheated. ), The air heated by the heating device 3 rises, and the convection of the air is generated in the storage container 1. The ozone generating device 2 (more precisely, the discharge electrode 27a of the ozone generating device 2) And partner electrode 27b part)
Are arranged side by side on the heating device 3 so that convection of air flows along the ozone generating device 2. It is of course possible to replace the convection by the heating device 3 with a fan (not shown) in a suitable place so that the air in the storage container 1 is convected by the fan.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a dehumidifying device for dehumidifying the inside of the storage container 1. In the illustrated example, the dehumidifying device 4 stores the dehumidifying agent 4b in the dehumidifying agent storing portion 4a. It is generally said that mites are vulnerable to drought,
By reducing the humidity, an effective killing effect of mites can be expected. In the case of "Fig. 3", the humidity is 70%, whereas in Fig. 4, the humidity is 40%, the mites are completely eliminated. The time required to die is reduced by about 30 minutes.

In the figure, reference numeral 5 denotes a breathable cover body that houses the oscillation circuit constituting resistor 23 and the electrodes 27a and 27b. With this breathable cover body 5, the oscillation circuit constituting resistor 23 for causing the clothes M to generate heat and discharge for discharging. It is arranged so as not to contact the electrode 27a. Reference numeral 6 denotes a power supply circuit section, in which the components except the oscillation circuit constituting resistor 23 and the electrodes 27a and 27b in FIG. 2 are properly stored in the storage box 6 and fixed in the storage container 1, The power outlet 7 is provided outside the storage container 1. In addition, in the storage box 6, a fuse that melts when a current of a predetermined amount or more flows, a temperature fuse that melts when the internal temperature rises above a predetermined temperature,
It is also possible to house a timer circuit or the like that cuts off energization after a lapse of a predetermined time, or to dispose a power switch that can be operated from outside the housing container 1.

[0032]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY According to the present invention, mites can be efficiently killed by generating ozone in addition to heating as described above. Furthermore, ozone detoxifies allergens of mites and their feces. Therefore, it is possible to effectively eliminate the damage caused by mites, and in particular, by treating clothes or the like directly attached to the skin, a remarkable improvement effect can be expected for dermatitis caused by mites.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of a mite treatment device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of an ozone generator used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the mite survival rate (mortality rate) with the vertical axis representing the tick survival rate and the horizontal axis representing the time.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing mite survival rate (mortality rate) under different humidity conditions.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Storage Container 2 Ozone Generator 3 Heating Device 4 Dehumidifier M Clothes

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A storage container 1 for storing clothes M and the like, and an ozone generator 2 for ozone-converting oxygen in the storage container 1,
A mite treatment device additionally provided with a heating device 3 for heating the inside of the storage container 1 to a temperature of 40 ° C. or higher and 90 ° C. or lower. 2. An accommodating container 1 for accommodating clothes M and the like, and an ozone generator 2 for ozonizing oxygen in the accommodating container 1,
A heating device 3 for heating the inside of the storage container 1 to a temperature of 40 ° C. or more and 90 ° C. or less, and a dehumidification device 4 for dehumidifying the inside of the storage container 1.
A mite treatment device with and attached.