Household bleach may raise children’s infection risk

By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) – – At home and at school, cleaning with chlorine bleach is meant to kill germs that could make kids sick, but a large European study finds bleach may be having the opposite effect. Children in The Netherlands, Finland and Spain who were regularly exposed to bleach-cleaned environments had higher rates of respiratory-tract infections, including influenza, bronchitis and tonsillitis. “We should be aware that some of the products (like bleach) that we use in our homes for cleaning are chemicals that may have also some effect on our health and also on our children’s health,” said Lidia Casas of the Center for Environment and Health in Belgium who led the study Previous studies have also linked cleaning products to respiratory health issues in children. To sort out the effects of bleach exposure on kids, Casas told Reuters Health in an email, “We aimed to investigate if children living in homes cleaned with bleach had more infections than those living in homes where bleach was not used.” The study team contacted the parents of over 9,000 children between the ages of six and 12 who attended schools in Spain, the Netherlands and Finland.
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