Haven't gotten the results back from the allergy doctor yet but know that I am "highly" allergic to dust. So I occurred to me that maybe while I was bringing this home, dust might have been on the curtains/shades and shaken loose and that caused my asthma attack. Anyway if you have washed the curtains or cleaned the shades, what did you use. I am going to clean them anyway no matter what my results but don't want to shrink or damage anything. Thank you all for your feedback, I am really glad I found this site.