Asthma
Cleaning Products and Your Lungs

We know that a clean home or work environment can rescue asthma triggers, but how the rooms are cleaned is also an important consideration. A report from The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that a compound used in mothballs, air fresheners and toilet bowl cleaners can reduce lung function. Called dichlorobenzene it can affect the lungs of both smokers and non-smokers.

While many cleaning product formulations can be irritating at the time they are used, they do not continue to cause problems after they have dried. By contrast products with dichlorobenzene are designed to continuously release active molecules into the air. To avoid problems avoid the use of these products where household members have underlying lung problems such as asthma and COPD.

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