51¶¯Âþ

The ultimate experience in dirty dancing is to do your hoofing on a rug, according to a high-stepping environmental engineer. Andrea Ferro of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, performed what she describes as a solo salsa in a 75-year-old home in Redwood City, California, as part of a study to determine how various human activities contribute to airborne pollution. Cutting a rug on a rug turned out to be one of the best ways to kick up dust, releasing nearly 1 milligram per minute, a little more than half as much as smoking a cigarette. Cleaning up her act turned out to be easy, though. By dancing on a wooden floor instead, she cut the particle count by nearly 90 per cent.