Women who regularly use cleaning sprays or other cleaning products appear to experience a greater decline in lung function over time than women who do not clean, according to a new study led by University of Bergen researchers.
Women cleaning at home or working as occupational cleaners had accelerated decline in lung function, suggesting that exposures related to cleaning activities may constitute a risk to long-term respiratory health. Image credit: Yerson Retamal.
“While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact,” said senior author Professor Cecile Svanes, a scientist at the University of Bergen.
“We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age.”
Professor Svanes and co-authors analyzed data from 6,235 participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. The participants, whose average age was 34 when they enrolled, were followed for more than 20 years.
They found that compared to women not engaged in cleaning:
(i) forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), or the amount of air a person can forcibly exhale in one second, declined 3.6 ml/year faster in women who cleaned at home and 3.9 ml/year faster in women who worked as cleaners;
(ii) forced vital capacity (FVC), or the total amount of air a person can forcibly exhale, declined 4.3 ml/year faster in women who cleaned at home and 7.1 ml/year faster in women who worked as cleaners.
The researchers found that the accelerated lung function decline in the women working as cleaners was comparable to smoking somewhat less than 20 pack-years.
“That level of lung impairment was surprising at first,” said lead author Øistein Svanes, a doctoral student at the University of Bergen.
“However, when you think of inhaling small particles from cleaning agents that are meant for cleaning the floor and not your lungs, maybe it is not so surprising after all.”
“The decline in lung function is attributable to the irritation that most cleaning chemicals cause on the mucous membranes lining the airways, which over time results in persistent changes in the airways and airway remodeling,” the authors said.
The study did not find that the ratio of FEV1 to FVC declined more rapidly in women who cleaned than in those who did not. The metric is used when diagnosing and monitoring patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The study did find that asthma was more prevalent in women who cleaned at home (12.3%) or at work (13.7%) compared to those who did not clean (9.6%).
The study also did not find that men who cleaned, either at home or at work, experienced greater decline in FEV1 or FVC than men who did not.
“The take home message of this study is that in the long run cleaning chemicals very likely cause rather substantial damage to your lungs,” Svanes said.
“These chemicals are usually unnecessary; microfiber cloths and water are more than enough for most purposes.”
“Public health officials should strictly regulate cleaning products and encourage producers to develop cleaning agents that cannot be inhaled.”
The findings appear this week in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
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Øistein Svanes et al. Cleaning at Home and at Work in Relation to Lung Function Decline and Airway Obstruction. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published online February 16, 2018; doi: 10.1164/rccm.201706-1311OC
