Asthma and housework: a few home truths
Two studies presented at the 15th ERS Congress in Copenhagen
28.09.2005 |Sascha Gabizon
products we use for housework and home improvements are not risk-free. In
fact, some of them may be responsible for almost one in five new cases of
asthma!
Some bad news for those who believe that a couple of squirts of cleaning
sprays are the key to cleanliness and hygiene! A European team, led by
Jan-Paul Zock, of the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Medical Research,
has just demonstrated a link between household sprays and new-onset asthma.
The results presented by an international team to the 15th Annual Congress
of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) were the fruit of a study covering
4,200 people in ten European countries, who were recruited as part of the
second ECRHS (European Community Respiratory Health Survey) campaign. All of
the subjects did their own housework, and 3,500 of them did not have asthma
at the beginning of the study.
Spain leads Europe in spray use
Household sprays were found to be used quite frequently in most of the
countries surveyed, particularly those for cleaning furniture, windows,
carpets and ovens, as well as so-called room sprays, used for freshening the
air in the home and removing odours.
Spaniards are by far the heaviest users, with 67.4% of Spanish participants
admitting they used such sprays at least once a week, followed by the UK
(53.9%), France (49.3%), Estonia (43.6%), Belgium (41.7%), Norway (38.7%),
Germany (38.5%), Switzerland (37.4%) and Italy (30.1%). Sweden is at the
bottom of the list, with only one Swede in four (26.3%) reporting regular
use of household sprays.
When the researchers compared the frequency of spray use with the incidence
of asthma, it turned out to be quite a shock.
From the nine years of monitoring, it can be seen clearly that the incidence
of asthma grows in proportion to the frequency of spray use.
Figures presented by Zock to the Congress show that the risk of triggering
asthma is 40% higher in individuals using sprays up to three days a week, as
compared to those who use them less than once a week. The outlook is worse
still for people using sprays on alternate days or every day (four to seven
days a week): their risk of new-onset asthma is increased by no less than
70%.
"This is the first time a study has shown that household sprays can trigger
asthma", Zock told the Congress. "According to our analysis, between 11 and
18% of new asthma cases can be attributed to frequent use of household
aerosols", he added, emphasising the discovery's importance for public
health.
Room sprays especially dangerous
While all household sprays contain small particles that enter the lungs
easily, with potential for irritating the airways, they are not all equal in
terms of their capacity for triggering asthma. The results presented in
Copenhagen indicate that room sprays, together with furniture and window
sprays, are the most hazardous, with a relative risk of 1.7, 1.5 and 1.3
respectively.
These results should be of particular interest to the Estonians, who seem
especially addicted to room sprays, with 40% of Estonian respondents
reporting using them at least once a week (against only 4% of Swedes),
although they fall far behind other nations when it comes to regular use of
window sprays (0.5% of Estonians against 45.6% of Spaniards, who hold the
record for shiny windows).
"But sprays are not the only household product that can trigger asthma",
Zock emphasised. "Other cleaning chemicals, including ammonia (relative
risk of 1.4) and bleach (1.22), or dye solvents (1.54), may also be risky in
this regard."
The dangers of home improvements
And cleaning is not the only home activity that can damage the lungs.
Another study, presented to the ERS Congress by a joint team from the
University of Birmingham (UK), the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
and the Dept of Public Health at the University of Helsinki (Finland),
looked at the possible consequences of various home improvement activities
on asthma development.
Headed by Maritta S. Jaakkola, the study compared in a three-year period 521
subjects in the south of Finland who had recently developed asthma and 932
control subjects randomly selected from the adult population of this area.
The study asked about their home improvements carried out in the previous
twelve months.
The results presented to the Congress indicate that the use of floor
levelling compounds increases the risk of developing new asthma by 26%.
Worse, when controlling for other factors, such as sex and other differences
between the two comparison groups, users of floor levelling compounds were
found to have an asthma risk of 81% higher than the control group.
"These products could contain asthmogenic agents, so the link is perfectly
plausible biologically", Jaakkola told the Congress.
Painting, wallpapering and varnishing did not, however, appear to increase
the risk of asthma.
This study is the first to provide evidence supporting the suggestion by
many patients that the onset of their asthma was linked to home improvements
and the accompanying dust and chemicals.
"These results highlight the need, in future, to consider the safety of home
improvement products and to ensure adequate protection measures for
professionals and amateurs involved in renovation work, as well as for
people living in newly renovated premises", the authors conclude.
