The bleach used in house cleaning exposes children to the risk of respiratory infections and other types of infections. Further proof that the habit of "disinfecting everything" is not really a friend of health.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
La bleach used for house cleaning exposes children to risk of infections respiratory and other types of infections. Further evidence that the habit of "Disinfect everything" it would not really be a friend of health.
The study in question was published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. A group of researchers led by Lydia Houses, expert of the department Public Health and Primary Care Center for Environment and Health, of Leuven, Belgium. The study porta il titolo di “Domestic use of bleach and infections in children: a multicentre cross-sectional study”.
The researchers focused onimpact of using bleach at home as regards the consequences on the health of the little ones. More than 9000 children between the ages of 6 and 12 were considered. The children came from different countries, such as Spain, Finland and the Netherlands.
The experts turned to their parents, who asked them to fill out a questionnaire on the health conditions of their children, with particular reference to frequency with which they contracted tonsillitis, sinusitis, bronchitis, otitis, pneumonia and flu.
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Next to the information relating to the health conditions of the children, here is the request for details on the habits related to domestic cleaning. Parents, in particular, were asked to indicate whether they used the household cleaning bleach at least once a week.
Based on the subdivision of the countries taken into consideration, it emerged that the use of bleach for house cleaning is very common in Spain while it is quite rare in Finland. The researchers also investigated the use of bleach in cleaning the schools attended by the children who participated in the study.
The habits related to the use of bleach have also been confirmed with regard to cleaning of school buildings. The Spanish schools under consideration were cleaned with bleach while this was not the case for Finnish schools.
The conclusions of the study? Better not to use bleach for cleaning either at home or at school. In fact, the study showed that the children most exposed to bleach presented a 20% higher risk of getting the flu and 35% of contracting tonsillitis compared to children not exposed to bleach.
You can finally say "Bleach goodbye" without hesitation?
Marta Albè
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