This matter is policed very carefully here, Dave. Indeed, I believe it is over-policed, and I believe there is a lot of unfair profiling based on bias. It's no secret that the Head Superintendent of Dust Control is a zealous practitioner of his trade. (Isn't he,...@Pete Askew? )
Avoid unwelcome intrusions into your business by keeping scanner glass and negatives as clean as possible. If you do that, anything that the Dust Police point out as a flaw on a scanned image can (perhaps) truthfully be claimed as a star or a vapor trail. (That's what I do.)
I tend to hoover my work area and then clean it and the scanner with some baby wipes. about 10 minutes after that I start scanning and use my rocket blower a lot. For the most part it seems to get rid of most of the dust, apart from the stuff that spontaneously manifests that is.