 It's crazy when you think about all the different kinds of foods we eat. We just swallow and hope it all works out for the best. Well, it turns out there are better ways to think about keeping our bodies humming healthfully along. Welcome to Nutrition Facts, I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Today, we take our recently decluttered living spaces and try to clean them without passing out from the harsh chemicals. And yes, we're talking about cleaning products, so what do we use? Here's our first story. Household cleaning products can be hazardous, landing hundreds of thousands of children in U.S. emergency rooms, and the product most commonly associated with injury was bleach, which can be toxic, even if used as directed. We've known that those with asthma who work with cleaning products day in and day out can suffer adverse respiratory effects, over worsening of symptoms, declining lung function, and inflamed airways, but even cleaning workers without asthma can be affected. Even below so-called acceptable exposure levels, cleaners with or without reactive airways can suffer a substantial decrease in lung function. OK, but that's people who clean for a living. Although we've known that occupational use of bleach may have adverse respiratory health effects, it was unknown whether just common domestic use of bleach in the household may put lungs at risk until now. Bleach use was significantly associated with nearly five times the odds of non-allergic adult onset asthma, as well as ongoing lower respiratory symptoms such as chronic cough. The way bleach works is as such a strong pro-oxidant that the thought is that it can lead to leaky lungs and allow allergens to penetrate. This phenomenon of cleaning product-induced asthma has been known for decades. More than three-quarters of the dozens of population studies looking into it have found increased risk of asthma or nasal inflammation. Ideally, safer cleaning products should be available. Unfortunately, this body of evidence has been largely ignored by the manufacturers and commercial cleaning companies, and most of workers put at risk are women. In fact, that may help explain some of the gender differences in asthma. The relatively high frequency of bleach use for home cleaning by women around the world, together with a strong association between bleach use and non-allergic asthma, emphasizes the need for reconsidering the use of bleach for cleaning. There are natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products that may offer a safer alternative, safer, perhaps, but are they as effective? We didn't know until now. The effectiveness of three home products in cleaning and disinfection of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria that causes staph infections, and E. coli on home environmental surfaces. The first report ever of the performance of a purportedly safer alternative. In the home setting, some individuals will select conventional products such as bleach due to familiarity, it's a smell some associate with cleanliness. They are seeking less hazardous and environmentally preferable green, organic, or natural disinfectants, which you can buy or make yourself, so-called DIY do-it-yourself recipes that typically involve ingredients like vinegar, clup soda, and plant essential oils such as tea tree oil prized for its antimicrobial qualities. So researchers pitted head-to-head chlorox bleach versus a natural disinfectant based on thymol, which is from thyme essential oil, versus a DIY recipe, half clup soda, half white vinegar with a few drops of tea tree oil. You could probably buy the bleach for around three bucks, the natural stuff from like $7, but the DIY mix for less than a dollar. Yeah, but does it work? On the bottle, it says bleach can kill 99.9% of germs, which is the EPA standard for the disinfection of surfaces that don't come into contact with food, like the bathroom sink or something. They claim 99% of germs, but when put to the test, the bleach actually killed 99.999% of germs, completely wiping out the E. coli and staff germs, which even exceeds the EPA standard for food contact surfaces like the kitchen counter, and so did the expensive natural stuff. Worked just as well as the bleach. But the clup soda vinegar tea tree oil concoction flopped, allowing as many as a few percent of the staff bugs to thrive. Now maybe they didn't use enough of the tea tree oil, only adding about a drop per cup, but from a performance perspective, the environmentally preferable product is an effective alternative to conventional bleach, and I would say even better since bleach is well known as a respiratory irritant, and it's corrosive too and manned up damaging surfaces. What I would find interesting is to test how effective a cheap DIY time oil solution would be. In our next story, we find the reasons the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prohibit not only smoking, but also scented or fragranced products in their building. In a recent review of the damaging effects of household cleaning products on the lungs, researchers noted that the adverse respiratory effects of cleaning products were first observed in populations experiencing high levels of exposure at the workplace, such as cleaners and health care workers, with a primary focus on asthma, but the occupational use of disinfectants has also been linked to a higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases like emphysema. And now we know it's not just workplace exposures, but also common household exposures that are risk factors for respiratory disorders and childhood, as well potentially an important risk factor for adult asthma, with common household cleaning spray use accounting for as many as 1 in 7 adult asthma cases. The thought is that the inhalation of chemical irritants may cause injury of the airways that leads to oxidative stress and inflammation. OK, so what can we do about it? Well, it may indeed be limited to sprays. Cleaning products not applied in spray form were not associated with asthma, and it's possible that environmentally friendly cleaning products may represent a safer alternative, though they may still present some risk. Ideally, safer cleaning products should be available. Unfortunately, the research suggesting harm has seldom been heated by manufacturers, vendors, and commercial cleaning companies. I wonder how much of that is because most of the workers exposed to cleaning products, both occupationally and presumably domestically, are women. One of the problems may be the fragrance chemicals. One in three Americans surveyed reported health problems, such as migraine headaches and respiratory difficulties, when exposed to fragranced products. And in about half, it was so bad they actually lost work over it. Results from this study reveal that more than one third of Americans suffer adverse health effects, such as respiratory difficulties and migraine headaches, from exposure to fragrance products. Of all individuals, half reported that the effects can be disabling, yet more than 99% of Americans are exposed to fragrance products, at least once a week. The effect on asthmatics may be even worse, affecting closer to two thirds. One compound that may be of particular concern is called 1,4-dichlorobenzene, also known as para-dichlorobenzene, which is found in many air fresheners, toilet bowl deodorants, and moth balls. It breaks down in the body into a compound called 2,5-dichlorofenol, which you pee out, giving researchers a reliable measure of your dichlorobenzene exposure. Not only may it make respiratory problems worse for those already suffering from compromised airways, but exposure to dichlorobenzene at blood levels found in the general US population may result in reduced lung function in people who start out with normal breathing. What's worse, higher exposure was associated with greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease and cancer. That's not good, so better read the labels, right? Surprisingly, there is no law in the US that requires the disclosure of all ingredients in fragrance consumer products. In fact, for air fresheners, laundry supplies, and cleaning products, they don't even need to say it has fragrance at all. You don't know until you smell it. So if you can't tell which products have which chemicals, you can follow the lead of the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not only is cigarette smoking indoors prohibited at all times, scented or fragrance products are also prohibited at all times in all interior space, owned, rented, or leased by the CDC. I wish rideshare services like Uber and Lyft would have a similar policy or at least a fragrance-free option. But one in five of more than 1,000 American surveyed said they would turn right around and leave a business. They smelled air fresheners or some fragrance product, so it's in business's best interest too, since more than 50% of the population would prefer that workplaces, healthcare facilities, and their healthcare professionals, hotels, and airplanes were fragrance-free. Finally today, we learn how vault of chemicals in consumer products such as air fresheners, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, and dryer sheets may be hazardous. In addition to meat, exposure to common household chemicals may exacerbate or induce allergies, asthma, and eczema. Researchers at Harvard and all around the world collected air samples from where children slept and demonstrated for the first time that the bedroom concentration of propylene glycol and glycol ethers was significantly associated with an elevated risk of multiple allergic symptoms, runny nose, and eczema. This class of chemical compounds is found in cleaning fluids, pain, pesticides, PVC pipes, varnishes, and may be one of the reasons we've seen an increase in these kinds of diseases around the world over the last few decades. Recently, researchers put a few consumer products to the test. Air fresheners, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, each with annual sales over $100 million. Six products, nearly 100 volatile chemicals, identified, though none were listed on the labels, usually just says something like fragrance. And 10 of the chemicals they found are regulated as toxic or hazardous, with three officially classified as hazardous air pollutants. For example, the fabric softener they tested. On the label it just says biodegradable fabric softening agents. And it even smells like mom when she leans in for a good night kiss. But this is what they really found, including the carcinogenic hazardous air pollutant acetyldehyde. What about if you just stick to the naturally scented products? Even products advertised as green, natural, organic, emitted as many hazardous chemicals as standard ones. For example, a soap boasting pure essential oils and organic tea infusions also contained all of these. Yeah, but what if you somehow know for certain it's all just natural, like the limonene? That's a real phytochemical found in real citrus. Until it photo oxidized with ozone and ambient air to form dangerous secondary pollutants, including formaldehyde. When it comes to consumer products, the best smell is no smell. We would love it if you could share with us your stories about reinventing your health through evidence-based nutrition. Go to nutritionfacts.org slash testimonials. We may share it on our social media to help inspire others. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, or studies mentioned here, please go to the Nutrition Facts podcast landing page. There you'll find all the detailed information you need, plus links to all the sources we cite for each of these topics. For our timely text on the pathogens that cause pandemics, you can order the e-book out of your book or hard copy of my latest book, How to Survive a Pandemic. For recipes, check out my new How Not to Diet Cookbook. It's beautifully designed with more than 100 recipes for delicious and nutritious meals. 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