Here comes another reason for obesity – household dust!

New Delhi: We have heard people being allergic to dust, but putting on weight because of it – never. Well, get ready to change that perception because a study in the US has revealed that household dust can actually make you gain weight!

According to the study, normal house dust is capable of carrying hormone-altering chemicals that prompt cells in the body to accumulate fat.

Even the smallest amount of dust, if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, is enough to trigger the effect.

The danger lurking indoors comes from so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), synthetic or naturally occurring compounds that can interfere with or mimic the body's hormones.

As per the Express UK, experts estimate children could be consuming as much as 50 milligrams of house dust every day.

Concerned about the potential effects EDCs could have on health US researchers from Duke University in North Carolina examined whether compounds in house dust might have an effect on fat cells.

For the experiment, samples of household dust were collected from 11 homes and were tested in the laboratory.

The extracts from seven of those samples developed into mature fat cells and accumulated triglycerides, while nine samples spurred the cells to divide, creating a larger pool of precursor fat cells. Only one dust sample had no effect.

Assistant Professor Heather Stapleton said, "This suggests that the mixture of these chemicals in house dust is promoting the accumulation of triglycerides and fat cells."

"Amounts of dust as low as 3 micrograms – well below the mass of dust that children are exposed to daily – caused measurable effects," Telegraph UK reported.

As per the Telegraph, among the 44 individual common house dust contaminants tested in the experiment, pyraclostrobin (a pesticide), the flame-retardant TBPDP, and DBP, a commonly used plasticizer, had the strongest fat-producing effects.

Some manufacturers have reduced the use of EDCs in products, but many are still common in consumer goods.

The findings were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.