Asthma blamed on cleaning sprays and air fresheners

Household cleaning sprays and air fresheners could be to blame for the high rates of asthma across Europe.

Use of the sprays on a regular basis increased the risk of developing the disease by between 30 to 50 per cent, a study of 3,500 people in 10 European countries including the UK has found. Even occasional use as little as once a week increased the risk. Air fresheners, furniture sprays and glass cleaners were found to have the strongest effect. Liquid cleaners and polishes had no effect.

The findings come from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, one of the world's largest studies of lung disease. They are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Previous research has shown that professional cleaners have increased rates of asthma but it is the first time that domestic cleaning has also been shown to create a risk.

Overall, 42 per cent of those surveyed used the sprays on at least one day a week. One in seven cases of asthma could be accounted for by exposure to cleaning products, according to the study's lead author,Jan Paul Zock, of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology at Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona.

"Frequent use of household cleaning sprays may be an important risk factor for adult asthma," he said. "Our findings indicate a relevant contribution of spray use to the burden of asthma in adults who do the cleaning in their homes."

Incidence of asthma has tripled in Britain since the 1970s and more than five million adults are affected. Similar rises have been seen in other European countries. At the same time the market for cleaning products has soared – by 60 per cent since 1994.

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