People often use bleach in their homes to kill germs, but new research suggests it could actually be making kids sick.
A recent study showed passive exposure to bleach leads to higher rates of childhood respiratory and other infections, the British Medical Journal reported.
The study looked at over 9,000 children between the ages of six and 12 who attended 19 schools in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 17 schools in Eastern and Central Finland and 18 schools in Barcelona, Spain. Parents of these children were asked to report cases of "flu; tonsillitis; sinusitis; bronchitis; otitis; and pneumonia" over the previous 12 months as well as whether or not they used bleach in their homes.
The findings showed children whose parents used bleach were 20 percent more likely to get the flu and 35 percent more likely to get recurrent tonsillitis. The risk of any recurrent infection was found to be 18 percent higher among children whose parents regularly used bleach.
The researchers noted the findings are only observational, and no solid conclusions can be drawn from them at this time. Despite the limitations, such as lack of information on what other products were used in the homes, the study backs up past findings that suggest a link between these types of chemicals and respiratory infections. This may be because the irritating chemicals can cause lung inflammation, making them more vulnerable to infection.
"The high frequency of use of disinfecting cleaning products, caused by the erroneous belief, reinforced by advertising, that our homes should be free of microbes, makes the modest effects reported in our study of public health concern," the researchers said.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
