Flood of New Appliances to Remove House Dust

More Families Seek for High-Performance Dust Remover

New vacuum cleaner "MC-P600" that can detect and remove even microscopic dust, put on sale by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

   Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. will introduce to the market a vacuum cleaner equipped with the "house dust sensor" that would be capable of detecting dust particles as tiny as about 20 micrometer for the first time in the world on May of 1 this year. It sucks the house dust that would be left out by ordinary vacuum cleaners with its suction, which is about twice as powerful as the cleaner without such device made by the same company 6 years ago. The newly developed "nigasan pakku (won't let you go pack)" uses three-layer solid unwoven cloth about five times as thick as usual ones. Its dust catching ability is about 10 times as powerful, and it is claimed to be capable of collecting about 99.9% of dust particles as tiny as 0.5 micrometer. Its retail price is about 65,000, which makes it rather expensive. According to a survey by the National Appliance Marketing, however, the new product is not for high-income households, but an increased number of families are waiting for such products with high performance.
   Demand is rising rapidly for high-powered vacuum cleaners equipped with house dust removing device using paper filter pack. These types of cleaners had accounted only for 3% of total sales as of 2003, but the percentage has kept growing and is expected to reach 30% this year.

House dust Removing Technology Developed in Japan will be Welcomed Overseas

   The makers of air conditioners were the first to deal with the house dust problems. Sharp Corp. started to attach sterile filtration function to all of its products in 2000. The standard type of such product big enough to be used for a room of six to eight tatami mats (roughly 9'x12' to 12'x12') costs around 200,000 yen. But they are selling well. Most of Japanese homes have small rooms which easily become stuffy. Often laundries are dried in those rooms as well. It is common nowadays that both the husband and wife work, meaning that the rooms are closed most part of day without ventilation. When the residents come home, they would find the air quality is very bad.
   A public relations official of Sharp has said: "The Japanese people love cleanliness. When pollen allergy became common, coupled with the coming of the health boom, therefore, the demand rise for the use of sterilizing ion was predictable. The house dust removing technology developed by the Japanese makers will be welcomed overseas in the futures."
   The function of sterilizing ion utilized to fight against the house dust is now employed even in the fan heater using the city gas. Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. marketed first such product last season and the sales went up as much as 30% during the fall and winter. "Our customers had the strong desire to reduce the allergen in the air. We expect the sales will grow even further the next season," says the Tokyo Gas Corporate Communications room. The pollen and other allergies are now even said to be Japan's national disease. It is certain that appliance makers stress the benefit to good health as value added to their products in the future.