Cleaning too often would be harmful to the lungs!

For quite strange reasons, a study published last February resurfaced in the news in this month of July. According to his findings cleaning up too often would be as harmful as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. The fault of course, but you certainly suspect it, the household products we use ….

Cleaning sprays, disinfectants and other detergents are, but you can imagine, riddled with chemicals. And according to the authors of the study these substances would be harmful to our lungs in case of regular use.

Before coming to this conclusion, researchers at the University of Bergen (Norway) badyzed the data of health of 6235 participants across Europe. In order to verify the impact of household products on their long-term respiratory functions, these people were followed for 20 years

And they found an accelerated decline in lung function in people regularly using these household products. This was especially true for housekeepers using them almost daily. Thus the respiratory function of these cleanliness professionals would be equivalent to a person having smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 10 years.

"A result that is hardly surprising when you think that you inhale small particles of agents of cleaning which are intended to clean the soil and not your lungs "wrote the authors of the study.

On the other hand, one will retain jumble of this study that asthma is more prevalent among houseworkers (12.3%) and those who did this job (13.7%). Figures that of course need to be compared with those of women who do not use these products.

"The message of this study is that in the long run, cleaning chemicals probably cause quite a lot of damage to the lungs, "said the lead author of the study. His advice? The return to the good old methods (the famous recipes of grandmother) or even the use of a microfiber cloth with water. Not sure that this will overcome the most stubborn tasks …

And men in all this? Scientists are not pronounced. First, because they were too few in the panel of cleaning professionals (barely 57 men against 293 women); secondly, because they are still a minority in cleaning the house (46% of men against 85% of women).

For those who want to know more, the results have been published in their entirety. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine