Surprise! Can the dust on the furniture make me gain weight?
I remember there was a very popular set of photos in the past. An overweight female photographer from the United States, Hayley Morris Caffiero, appeared in the photos. In the photos, she was either exercising on the wooden boardwalk or resting on the side of the road in her swimsuit because she was tired. What remained unchanged was the similar looks that passers-by gave her – picky and superior.
The idea for the project, called “Waiting for Observers,” was inspired by an experience in which Hailey felt the world’s hostility toward fat people: a young female clerk saw that she had taken a fancy to a pair of sports shorts and “praised” Hailey in a mocking tone. Hailey said: “I am curious about what kind of emotions people want to express through such gazes, and in turn, how should we understand the way people see us.”
As people’s pursuit of beauty grows stronger, modern people tend to avoid being fat rather than seeking it. With a heart that yearns for beauty, do you know that ordinary dust in your home can also make us fat? According to a recent research report published in Environmental Science and Technology, this is indeed possible.
Previous studies have found that household dust—a mix of skin flakes, pollen, and other tiny particles—contains chemicals that can disrupt our endocrine system and affect our hormones. Hormones are chemicals that regulate a variety of bodily functions, including fertility, mood, and weight. “Many products emit chemicals into the indoor environment, and many studies have shown that these chemicals accumulate on individual dust particles over time,” said study author Christopher Kasoudis, an endocrinologist at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. In the past few years, a lot of research has been done to try to understand the biological activity of these chemicals, to better understand which hormones they interact with and what adverse effects they may have on the body. In the past, people have focused on whether the chemicals themselves are toxic. If people don’t get sick or die soon after using them, then it’s not a big deal. But in recent years, we’ve become more aware that some chemicals may not kill us immediately, but can cause health problems over time. So recently, researchers have begun to think about and study related topics, and found that chemicals in the environment may even affect our endocrine system.
Reprint：Science Popularization China
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