“Frequent use of household cleaning products in early life is associated with an increased risk of wheezing and childhood asthma but not atopy at age 3,” the researchers from the University of Vancouver (Canada) in a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
One of the main causes of hospitalization of children
The prevalence of childhood asthma has steadily increased over the past decades and is now a major cause of childhood chronic diseases and hospital admissions in developed countries. This is why the researchers looked at the impact of indoor pollution on children’s lungs by following 3,455 children recruited from mainly urban centers in 4 Canadian provinces.
When infants were 3 to 4 months old, their parents completed a cleaning product exposure questionnaire and reported how often, on average, these products were used in the home. Most infants were not exposed to second-hand smoke and did not have parents with asthma.”Infants, who spend 80-90% of their time indoors, are particularly vulnerable to exposure to chemicals , which reach their lungs and skin, due to their higher respiration rate and regular contact with household surfaces.
“A proposed mechanism for our findings is that chemicals in cleaning products damage respiratory epithelium by affecting inflammatory pathways of the innate immune system rather than allergic pathways,” conclude the researchers, who also noted in their study that girls seemed more vulnerable than the boys.
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