DUST is my DEATH & My LIFE
This is me; this is us.
I know “they” say you are not supposed to start a blog about yourself. Still, in this case, it is essential to know who I am & that my material and quotes are solid.
I am not a salesperson selling gobbely-gook (pronounced gob-bel-lee & made up) from behind a desk, slapping a picture of a horse label on it, diluting it so it only works 6 months & quadrupling the price. That might kill all your fish in your pond or rust out gate hinges, horse trailers, or your dually parked nearby.
As one of the owners of ARENACLEAR, it is my livelihood and my life’s savior. After all we live what we breathe. I call it “having skin in the game”.
I can confirm that dust can be detrimental, having had two DUST-related near-death experiences.
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My shared Resources
I memorize written words. Over the past 50 years, I have acquired three three-drawer lateral files full of trustworthy, vetted material. There are too many mentions of computers crashing and losing a lifetime of material. I am old-fashioned and like hard copies to be certain of the source and their copyright rules.
In adulthood, having a photographic memory of everything I read helped me pass all my state boards by verbal spelling & writing, including anatomy, chemistry, and much more. I kept my well-worn ICDs, Volumes 1 and 2; they are still very handy.
After thorough research and cross-referencing, I share transcribed facts and information on our website, blogs, published articles, and Facebook posts from Scholastic Studies, PhD’s works, State or Government Agencies, and national and international Health Agencies.
Sometimes, I may rephrase the statements because they are too dry or add tidbits pertinent to the equine industry or animal or human health. I use words to elicit a picture, spurring you to better health.
I have been published twice internationally on subjects in my field.
You may find them on our website, www.ARENACLEAR.com Ammonia & Dust.
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WORDS convey
My reading obsession & ability came very young, guided by my mother. I had thick, long, unruly hair. Trying to gain some control, Mom perm-waved my hair. Afterward, I looked like a standard poodle on steroids. 
My mom took a new route & put my hair in rollers, set me down in a backward chair, and put me under a bonnet cap hair dryer (which looked like a giant shower cap from outer space); she would hand me one volume of World Book Encyclopedia & a Webster Dictionary then walk away. I was to look up any word I did not know the meaning of with my dictionary. She started with A. This happened twice or three times a week if I got my hair dirty; mom had mild Mysophobia. I guess she was trying to share it! I remember going through the set & then starting again in the middle & for kicks, starting with Z working backward.
By 12, I would have made a great Jeopardy contestant but would have been bald from the heat and rollers (just kidding), and I have my mother to thank for that. With a youthful eidetic memory, pesty questions about little-known foreign river names would have been a piece of cake.
I still read incessantly, searching for innovative products or cures, studies, and current information; it fascinates me.
TRIGGER
My interest in horses started young. I watched everything with a horse: Black Beauty, Fury & Roy Rodgers with Trigger. The first handmade gift I made my mother was a horse napkin holder. I am sure she loved it.
I learned to ride at Metropolitan Park Stables in Ohio in the 1960’s. After an hour of practice during an outdoor arena event on a warm summer August day, they told me I had fallen off the horse, not because of fault but because I had lost the ability to breathe. I flatlined. One of the instructors was a large animal vet, and although she should not practice on people, she breathed for me and saved my life. They thought since I landed face down, I may have died from Commotio Cordis. They called an ambulance and sent me to Fairview Hospital, where they worked hard on me.
The doctor said I was “LOST” on the way there, but the paramedics revived me. My ribs were sore, to prove it. We discussed the day’s happenings, and after some breathing tests and x-rays, he declared I was “allergic to dust.” He furthered that due to acquired COPD & Asthma, I was likely on my way to Silicosis, “my days in arenas were finished.” In 1964, dust control products other than water were nonexistent. We know water alone does not do much nor last long.
When the Occupational Safety & Health Administration OSHA states “that exposure to Silica Dust has been classified as a human lung carcinogenic’, “use all available work practices to control dust exposures.” In addition, it can mean life-long bronchitis, kidney disease, COPD, lung cancer, pneumonia-like symptoms, breathing difficulty, tiredness, weakness or even death. I believe them; I am “living’ proof. (just to be confusing)
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The NUNS
I went to Catholic schools, but don’t hold that against me; my knowing mom sent me there because there were no boys, and the Notre Dame nuns enlisted all means to ensure I studied. I am just honest. It meant I learned a foreign language, Latin (daily mass), without realizing it, and it helped later during my studies for state boards.
The movie with Hayley Mills, “The Trouble with Angels,” should have been written about me. It is a cute movie. Boy, could I add mischievous storylines? (Ask me about Tabu at our next show)
One drawback of Catholic schools in those days was that they did not teach phonics. I passed all my state boards by spelling words as long as my hand, verbally or written on paper.
Going to Catholic high school meant riding three city buses to reach them. I learned the bus schedules and made them work for me. One bus stop became my favorite: the Cleveland Public Library in downtown Cleveland—the perfect venue to search for studies & a cure to return to my equine passion.
That building’s architecture and curved staircases are breathtaking. If I had timed it right, I would have time to hunt for studies on dust and its respiratory effects, walk the pristine marble floors, and descend the curved stairwells like a princess
I tried perilously sliding down one, but that didn’t work out well.
Daily, the floors and my uniform’s required trappings put me at odds with the librarians. My saddle shoes clopped and echoed throughout the marble hardscape; I sounded like a Budweiser Clydesdale. Everyone could hear me coming. Librarians would scowl behind their thick black glasses while I stood before them, and without looking up, they would say, “Yes, Theresa, what can we help you find today for your reading pleasure?”
There was little on the subject, consisting of two pages on microfiche under lock & key. Yes, I know I am old, and now my eyesight is dull after reading tiny words on the harmful effects of dust on humans via microfiche. ___________________________________________________________________________________
Life without dust…or not
Years later, I became a busy working mother of two. Eventually, when they were a little older, we made 128 dozen Christmas cookies (not a type-o) to share with our extended family. Thumbprints are time-consuming but a favorite, and my youngest had the perfect-sized digitus primus manus for jelly. (why not” digitus primus womanus”?)
Children are mischievous, and the youngest sitting on the counter was stirring the gigantic batter bowl. Grinning, he grabbed a handful of flour and threw it at his older sister. She returned the favor, and we all joined in. It had been ten years since I had had an episode. I had forgotten the effects of dust on my lungs. Once again, down, I went out like a light, and within a few minutes, I was technically dead. The reviving neighbor… Larry, a firefighter who later became chief.
A personal example of my research, I share that what brought me to death’s door does not make it better, just known.
How important are macrophages?
The Macrophages (scavenging cells) help dissolve & resolve smaller-sized respiratory dust particles. If there is too much dust, the scavenger cells cannot completely clear dust from your lungs, and you suffocate without oxygen. Dust can mean death in an episode.
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The Working Girl
Much later, John, our company’s brawn & math brains, took on Stall DRY Deodorizer, Barn Fresh, and Red Lake Diatomaceous Earth, an anti-caking agent feed additive for large operation poultry, egg layers, dairy & hog farms, with John at the helm, as the U.S.A. National Marketing and Distribution President, there was a quick expansion. People were eager for ammonia control. John hired me as Vice President of Marketing and Sales Training Director.
I know some of you love Sweet PDZ, and that is great. If the horses, animals, and their humans are experiencing less ammonia, I am happy.
When John and I started with Stall DRY in 1997, we had one distributor in WA. We set up 18 Stall DRY distributors who sold it to local feed stores throughout the United States, including in HI. Next, we set up chain stores: Orscheln’s, Mills Fleet & Farm, nationwide Tractor Supply stores, and more.
John set up feed mills and distributors nationwide with Red Lake Earth Diatomaceous Earth & Barn Fresh. We traveled with their salesforce to their clients’ ammonia-laden dairy barns, grower poultry houses, and egg layer houses. This was challenging for me, as ammonia is another COPD/Asthma trigger.
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JUST THE FACTS MA’AM
It wasn’t until my 30s that KY Equine Research Center wrote a study titled “Small Airway Disease & Equine Respiratory Health ” that I realized horses suffered from the harmful effects of DUST (now given newer acronyms): IAD, RAD, EIPH, and CIA.
Emission Factors Fugitive Dust Sources #13.2 “Significant atmospheric dust arises from the mechanical disturbance of granular material exposed to air.”
- Pulverization & abrasion of surface materials by application of mechanical force of implements (wheels & blades, etc.)” (Horses hooves & drags fall in here)
- Entrainment of dust particles by the action of turbulent air currents, such as wind erosion by wind speeds of over 12 miles an hour”. (open barn doors create a wind tunnel effect)
- “…..considerable amounts of fine particles are emitted & dispersed over much greater distances from the source. (neighbors or your outdoor arena)
- “Control Techniques for fugitive dust sources involve watering, chemical stabilization, or reduction of wind…..”
- “Watering, the most common and generally least expensive method, provides only temporary control. “
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Who is at RISK:
ALL arena footings contain FREE CRYSTALLINE SILICA (dirt, clay, rubber, or fiber with sand).
Everyone exposed is at risk; no one is immune; everyone is harmed by FCS dust. Feel your hair, look at your boots and cheeks. If you are brave, swipe them with a tissue or paper towel. Now, I want you to imagine what your lungs look like.
Dust fines bury themselves in the cushy folds of your lungs. This irritates them, and they rebel by continuously covering them with collagen, creating fibrotic nodes that grow thicker and thicker, leaving little room for air. (I will use this over and over)
Diabolical fines find their way into the deepest depths of the lungs, which can be an immediate problem or a later one, but it will be one.
Unless you control your dust.
At risk: Barn Managers, muckers, instructors and their students, innocent siblings, Judges, parents and grandparents, your neighbors, and the disadvantaged that you welcome.
THINK HORSES
May I highlight that rarely does anyone think of the horses in the barn, some as near as 10 feet from the arena, their fugitive source of harmful dust 24/7?
We expect them to be our practice horses or wish them to be our 1st place champions, but we deprive them of their biggest biological need: clear/clean oxygen.
Oxygen is their lifeblood; it infuses every cell & muscle, enabling them to achieve their best barrel performances and highest jumps.
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HARMFUL Dust
While working at the horse shows for Stall DRY at Equine Affaire’s three shows, the OHIO Quarter Horse Congress, the Midwest Horse Fair, etc., John and I noticed that nine out of ten women attendants asked if Stall DRY would control DUST, too.
It is no wonder women were searching. The American Lung Association states:
“By the year 2000, COPD had claimed the lives of more women than men for the first time and accounted for 53% of all deaths of COPD.” (occupational respiratory illnesses like pneumonia)
“Equestrian professions are exposed to inorganic & organic dust”.
Another research paper states: “Women are now the majority owners of horses”.
Am Lung Association “and biological gender differences appear to make women more susceptible to HARM from those exposures”.
Is ARENACLEAR Safe?
In 2003, we traveled 252 days a year for Stall DRY, RLE, and rarely home. During Winter’s inclement weather, John met a gentleman in an airport waiting area & they talked business. Each inquired what the other did for a living.
The gentleman highlighted that he had an approved ORGANIC ag mineral-based product and fish fertilizer, both of which piqued John’s interest. They set up a meeting. Afterward, we were handed an 8-inch voluminous book to read, which I read in two days. One standout was the Features and Benefits of the agricultural mineral product. I read one paragraph aloud to John, and he decided to research the product and confirm the results. John bought the product, and we assessed it in Las Vegas in our new home’s backyard, a dust bowl, and other venues. The results exceeded our expectations.
The product was approved by the State of California (one of the strictest in the nation) in the 1950s and used by California farmers seeking to renew, refurbish, and remove the chemical remains of chemical fertilizer residues so they could become Certified ORGANIC Growers. (California grows over 13% of the nation’s crops, which have a 51-billion-dollar value. Iowa is second).
It made the grower’s land arable, retained moisture under arid conditions, created NO DUST, tilled like butter, did not freeze, and renewed the soil. The farmers reported that their crops grew faster and bigger, were harvested earlier, were richer in color, and looked healthier.
After buying the company, John formulated ARENACLEAR specifically to be safe for horses, animal hooves, our puppy 
, barn cat
paws, and our grandchildren.
He wanted it to be affordable so the masses could use it and be healthier. He wanted it to be easy, require no special or heavy equipment, and work both outdoors and indoors.
Importantly, we wanted AC to be effective.
What does ARENACLEAR do? (short version)
AC works outdoors and indoors. It combines multiple particles of dust to form larger particles. Larger particles are less likely to float; studies prove this. AC is hydrophilic, having an affinity for water. AC holds up to 300% more water (like a water balloon) deeply before slowly releasing it, keeping your footing moist longer and controlling dust. This has several benefits: heavier particles cannot float, while the “ballons” provide concussion and rebound that your horses will love (push on a water balloon, and what happens?).
ARENACLEAR, safe, effective, and TRUSTED since 2003.
Happy wife, happy LIFE (without DUST).
Teri Clark
We answer the phones. We hope you call us with any questions at 877-562-8147.
Thank you for reading our BLOG. Much more to come……