FINDING 1:
Weekly use of home cleaning products is as damaging to lung health as smoking 20 cigarettes per day for 20 years.
By now, just about everyone knows the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Among their many hazards is depleted lung capacity—the result of damage to the tender internal tissues of the respiratory system. Lung capacity is important because it is a marker of overall health and fitness. The body depends on the lungs’ life-giving ability to oxygenate blood and expel carbon dioxide—the waste product of metabolism. Decreased lung capacity can lead to obvious declines in fitness, but since the body is so dependent on oxygen exchange, whole systems of the body can be compromised when the lungs become even partially debilitated. The ECRHS III study concluded that women who used home cleaning products at least once per week saw a similar reduction in lung capacity as those who smoked a pack a day over the same period. According to the authors, “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.”
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