Giving your house a weekly clean could be
enough to give you asthma, according to research.
A study found using household cleaning sprays
and air fresheners as little as once a week raised the risk
of asthma.
Heavy use of such products has already been
linked with occupational asthma, but the latest work suggests
occasional use in the home also poses a threat.
The Spanish study of more than 3,500 is published
in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The risk of developing asthma increased with
frequency of cleaning and the number of different sprays used.
Spray air fresheners, furniture cleaners
and glass cleaners carried the highest risk.
Exposure to cleaning products could account
for as much as 15%, or one in seven adult asthma cases, the
researchers suggest.
On average, the risk was 30-50% higher in
people regularly used the sprays than in others.
And the incidence of physician-diagnosed
asthma was higher among those using sprays at least four days
per week
Irritants
The study authors, Dr Jan-Paul Zock and colleagues
from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona,
said work was needed to determine the biological mechanism
behind the increased risk.
It may be that sprays contain irritants specific
to asthma, they suggest.
Dr Kenneth Rosenman, professor of occupational
and environmental medicine at Michigan State University, said:
"Clinicians should be aware of the potential for cleaning
products used in the home to cause respiratory symptoms and
possibly asthma."
Victoria King of Asthma UK said: "We know
that up to 25% of people exposed to chemicals, including cleaning
sprays, at work will go on to develop occupational asthma.
"This report also highlights significant
findings regarding the link between asthma and the use of
spray cleaning products in the home. Although further research
is needed, we do already know that air fresheners and bleach
trigger symptoms in people who already have asthma.
The UK Cleaning Products Industry Association
said: "The safety of consumers is the highest priority of
our industries and the safety of our products is regularly
checked and subject to rigorous controls, as well as stringent
European legislation."
A spokesman stressed that cleaning product
use has not been demonstrated to cause asthma.
