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THINGS TO AVOID WHEN FIGHTING MITES
# The value of air filters in a room is doubtful. Air filters in a ducted air central heating system are probably a good idea if you have that type of heating. People are often disappointed to be told room air filters are not such a good idea for house dust mite allergy; they like the idea that paying for an appliance will solve the problem, and suppliers keep presenting the idea as an attractive one despite the lack of evidence. Remember, they not only make money from selling the machine, but from replacement filters and maintenance. You will also have to pay the electricity costs, put up with the noise they make, and give up some floorspace in a room. Research data known to us suggest that room air filters may be some use against cat dust in houses (which does not prove that they are effective enough to make a difference to asthma caused by cats), but are much less effective against mite dust.
To understand why, you have to understand something about the things which add dust into the air and things which remove dust from the air. The concentration of the dust you breathe will depend on the balance between the two. The effect of filters depends on their overall contribution amongst the other things which happen.
Mite dust particles are larger than cat dust particles, and fall out of the air more quickly. So mite dust concentrations in a room are much more dependent on human activity in the room, stirring up new dust into the air. An air filter appliance will itself stir up the air in a room and thus delay the settling of mite dust. Free-standing filter appliances are by their nature somewhat inefficient because progressively they start to filter air which they have already filtered before. These facts mean that such a filter often makes little difference to the disappearance of mite dust from the air in an undisturbed and unventilated room and cannot keep up with the raising of mite dust in a disturbed room.
In contrast, cat dust is much finer, and stays in the air much longer. This means that an air filtering appliance can make a difference to airborne cat dust in an undisturbed room, though probably not much difference in a room where new cat dust is being raised by humans or cats. However, installing an air filter is not a reasonable substitute for getting rid of the cats.
So far, this ignores the effect of ventilation of the room. Exchanging the room air with outdoor air (e.g. by opening windows) could easily outstrip the effect of a room air filter, at the price of making the indoor temperature more like the outdoor temperature. If temperature or noise are not a problem, ventilation is likely to be a much more effective answer than filtration. If temperature is an issue, then a heat exchanging ventilator may still be a much better answer than a free-standing air filter, with the potential for a bigger effect for smaller running costs and noise levels. All the experts on mite dust control recommend ventilation of the house. In the presence of reasonable ventilation, a free-standing air filter will not make a worthwhile difference and will surely not justify its cost.
# Mite-killing sprays. They are not necessarily useless, but there have been many clinical trials to check whether they make people better, and all the good trials failed to show any benefit to symptoms or any other worthwhile aspect of asthma. They do contain things which kill mites (though they differ in ingredients) but are expensive when used thoroughly, and it seems almost impossible to use enough of them to be really effective. Toxicity is generally an unanswered issue, given that members of the household may be heavily exposed. Our advice: don't spend money on these sprays, except maybe as an adjunct to other mite control measures, e.g. for some piece of furniture you are determined not to get rid of. Even then, this is not the best approach.
# Ionisers. All attempts to show their value have failed as far as I know.
# Mite-killing housepaint: forget it!