UK Study Links Carpet Cleaners, Household Chemical
London, England, December 23--Bleach, paint stripper and carpet cleaners used in the home can cause wheezing and asthma in children, new research suggests.
A study following 14,000 children since birth found that frequent use of household cleaning products and other chemicals in the home was linked to cases of wheezing among youngsters.
Researchers concluded there was a clear connection between children's breathing problems and their mothers' use of a range of common products such as bleach, paint stripper and carpet cleaners.
The study found that in the 10% of families who used the chemicals most frequently, the children were twice as likely to suffer wheezing problems as in the families where they were used least.
Information involving 7,019 families from the Children Of The 90s project at the University of Bristol was used to investigate respiratory health among young children.
Researchers asked pregnant women to report how often they used a list of chemical-based products.
The 11 most common were disinfectant, bleach, carpet cleaner, window cleaner, dry cleaning fluid, aerosols, turpentine or white spirit, air fresheners, paint stripper, paint or varnish and pesticides or insecticides.
For each family, researchers calculated the total chemical burden according to how frequently they used each product. Researchers then compared this information with each mother's report on whether her child had experienced wheezing with whistling on his or her chest.
Up to the age of three and a half years, 71.2% of children never wheezed, 19.1% appeared to wheeze as babies but not when they were older, 3.5% developed wheezing problems after the age of two and a half and 6.2% (432 children) had a persistent wheeze throughout.
Researchers discovered there was a significant association between the children who suffered persistent wheezing and the mother's use of these chemicals.
They concluded that the more frequently the chemicals were used, the higher the risk that the young child would have persistent wheezing.
