House-Cleaning Products May Contain Pollutants, Study Finds
SAN JOSE, Calif. _ One manufacturer promotes its pine-scented cleaning products as providing a “Clean you can smell. A clean you can trust.” But a groundbreaking new study suggests that household cleaners and air fresheners _ particularly those with pine, orange and lemon scents _ may emit harmful levels of toxic pollutants.
Exposure to some of these pollutants and their byproducts may exceed regulatory guidelines when used repeatedly or in small, poorly ventilated rooms, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded after a four-year study.
Among the conclusions:
_A person who cleans a shower stall for 15 minutes with a product containing glycol ethers _ known toxic air contaminants _ may be exposed to three times the recommended one-hour exposure limit.
_Using air freshener in a child’s room along with an air purifier that creates ozone can result in formaldehyde levels 25 percent higher than the state recommends. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen.
_Professional house cleaners who clean four homes a day, five days per week take in about double the recommended formaldehyde levels.
The report is the first to measure emissions from cleaning products during typical indoor use, as well as the health risks associated with inhaling them.
“My suggestion is don’t stop cleaning, but clean with consciousness that cleaning products themselves contain materials that shouldn’t be inhaled,” said study author William Nazaroff, a professor of environmental engineering at University of California-Berkeley.
Many consumers just aren’t aware, he said, that common household cleaners can be a major cause of indoor air pollution. Some contain ethylene-based glycol ethers. Also of concern are terpenes, compounds derived from plant oils that are widely used to give cleaning products and air fresheners their pleasant, fruity scent. The scientists found that terpenes mix with ozone in the air to create formaldehyde.
“On the one hand, they think `I’m cleaning germs,’ which isn’t a bad thing,” said Gennet Paauwe, spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board, which funded the study. “But what else are you doing in the process? You or your family members may be inhaling toxins while you’re doing that.”
Brian Sansoni, a spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association in Washington, said common sense is key to the safe handling of household cleansers. Properly ventilating a room while cleaning it and using cleaners sparingly are effective strategies for those concerned about their exposure to chemicals, he said.
“It’s important to note that these products are used safely and effectively by Californians every single day in their homes, in their offices, in their schools and in health care settings,” Sansoni said. “And what can’t be lost is the fact that proper use of cleaning products and disinfectants is critical to improve public health and disease prevention.”
The scientists bought 21 household cleaners and air fresheners at East San Francisco Bay area stores, selecting products they thought might be associated with higher levels of air pollution because of their fresh-scent claims. As it turns out, six contained ethylene-based glycol ethers and 12 contained terpenes.
The researchers, however, won’t reveal which products they used, and which might pose the greatest risk to human health. Household cleaners as a whole and not individual brands are the main problem, Nazaroff said.
He also cautioned against falling for deceptive marketing and encouraged shoppers to buy scent-free cleansing agents rather than those with unsubstantiated claims that they are environmentally superior or “green.”
“I don’t want to go so far as to say we shouldn’t use any terpene-containing products,” he said, “but what is advertised as being organic and green and good for us isn’t automatically so.”
With this newfound knowledge, what does Nazaroff’s family do?
“In my household, we haven’t stopped using products that contain glycol ethers,” he said, “but we use them more cautiously now.”
___
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED
The study, “Indoor Air Chemistry: Cleaning Agents, Ozone and Toxic Air Contaminants,” can be viewed online:
ftp://ftp.arb.ca.gov/carbis/research/apr/past/01-336(underscore)a.pdf
___
(c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News, at http://www.sjmercury.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.