• Posted May 26, 2026

Dust Yields Clues to Viral Outbreaks, Study Finds

Dusting just took on a whole new purpose: Scientists say dust contains clues to viruses circulating in offices, schools and other buildings, according to a new study. 

“Research like this is useful for monitoring a range of buildings where there’s a variety of things that you're concerned about,” senior author Karen Dannemiller said in a news release. She’s an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Ohio State University in Columbus.

As anyone who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic knows, societal debris such as wastewater has long been used to track viral spread through communities. 

Samples of common dust might someday do the same for more specific locales, according to findings recently published in Building and Environment.

“This is an initial step to understanding how we can use technology to better monitor at the building level for different infectious diseases,” Dannemiller said. “Ultimately, that leads to a more informed use of precautions and better targeting for the use of resources.”

In their new study, the Ohio team vacuumed up dust samples from nearly 30 locations, including schools, university residence halls and office buildings.

They then used high-tech genetic tracing technologies to spot molecules that viruses might leave in their wake as they decayed. A total of 200 different viruses were included in the test kit. 

The result: Dannemiller's team spotted 54 distinct viruses in the dust samples, including the COVID virus, influenza, norovirus, Epstein-Barr virus and many others.

“It’s really important that we understand broadly how to track disease in our community,” she explained in the release. “Similar to wastewater monitoring, which tracks disease clusters on a large-scale level, we’ve created an intermediate tool that has those same benefits for a smaller population.”

She called the study "groundbreaking work," because although scientists have genetically tracked viruses in dust before, "it’s been on a pretty limited basis and was not proposed as a surveillance tool."

The researchers stressed that viral remnants left in dust are typically harmless because they've decayed and are no longer infectious.

However, their presence or absence can reveal certain patterns. 

For example, certain viruses appeared far more commonly in areas frequented by children (daycares, for example) than by adults. And rhinoviruses (which cause the common cold) were found in 85% of all samples collected, the study found.

“Research like this is useful for monitoring a range of buildings where there’s a variety of things that you're concerned about,” Dannemiller said. “By using that information to help pinpoint those issues, it’s possible to improve our decisions about where to direct limited mitigation resources.”

There's not yet a standard dust-sampling technology used to test for viruses. However, the team's next step is to see whether the technique they used in the study might be more broadly applicable. 

The research was funded by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

More information

Find out more about viruses at the Cleveland Clinic.

SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, May 18, 2026