Mothballs and air fresheners, oh my!

In 2005 more than 1.5 million children under the age of five were admitted to Accident and Emergency Departments due to poisoning from household cleaning products.

There are more dangers lurking in common household cleaners. Some you can smell but have no idea of the harm they cause you, children, and even family pets.

Throw out that scented-oil air freshener.

A new study indicates the chemical that provides the “clean” smell of mothballs and air fresheners could damage the lungs of anyone who inhales it regularly.

Exposed to the air, the chemical paradichlorobenzene (which gives mothballs their smell) emits a chemical (1,4-dichlorobenzene). It is more potent than benzene and tolulene for harming lungs. Here is a recent scientific study.

A study released in May 2006 by the California Air Resources Board (part of the California Environmental Protection Agency) showed that several compounds found in air fresheners and household cleaners (but especially 1,4-dichlorbenzene or 1,4DCB) can reach harmful concentrations inside homes. Just by being around these products you will regularly exceed the maximum dosage the state recommends.

Some of the cleaners (and certainly the air fresheners) are designed to be slow-releasing — which makes them more dangerous because you breathe them regularly.

Your exposure to the fumes is (in medical talk) “chronic.”

The state study indicates that if you inhale the chemical regularly, 1,4DCB appears in your bloodstream. Whether you smoke or not, the relationship between inhaling the stuff and lung impairment is startling. If you use it over a long period of time there can be permanent effects.

When you have permanent lung damage you are at greater risk for heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Continue reading here: Bau-humbug: The sham that is bau-biology

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