Women’s Cleaning Chemical Exposure Linked to Asthma in Their Offspring

Wearing proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and following diluting instructions when using cleaning chemicals may not only help protect the health of professional cleaners, but also the health of their future children. A new analysis of data collected in national studies led by researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway and published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that cases of childhood asthma were more common if mothers had worked in a job with exposure to cleaning products and disinfectants before conception of the child.

The researchers investigated more than 3,300 children-mother pairs, including women who worked as cleaners, nurses, cooks, and other careers that involve exposure to cleaning and disinfecting chemicals. The analyses revealed that if women had exposure to the chemicals before the conception of her child, the child had 71% more chance of contracting asthma. If she had begun such work after the child was born, no increase in asthma risk could be found.

These findings suggest that cleaning agents and disinfectants might induce changes in the mother that are transferred to future offspring and influence their health. Researchers called for the additional research to determine the implications of these chemicals on women of childbearing age and their children.