Where There’s Dust, There’s Danger

These tiny needle-felted lungs are made from wool and household dust impregnated with the extracted DNA of tuberculosis (TB). The lungs show various stages of the disease and forms of treatment.

Around the turn of the 20th century, it was widely believed that household dust was one of the main transmission vectors. Sufferers would cough up sputum from their lungs and spit it out. The sputum would dry and become mixed with dust. But it seems very unlikely that the disease could be spread effectively in this manner, as the particles are far too large.

Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with Kevin Cole and Dr John Paul, Modernising Medical Microbiology
2014
Needle-felted wool and dust with sterilised extracted DNA of tuberculosis