Related Experiment Videos
CE: Environments & Health: Chemicals in the Home That Can Exacerbate Asthma
Barbara J Polivka1, Luz Huntington-Moskos, Rodney Folz
1Barbara J. Polivka is an associate dean of research and a professor at the University of Kansas, Kansas City. Luz Huntington-Moskos is an assistant professor at the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, where Russel Barnett is a lecturer. Rodney Folz is chief, pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at Houston Methodist Lung Center, Houston Methodist Hospital. Contact author: Barbara J. Polivka, bpolivka@kumc.edu . This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging (award number R01AG047297). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors acknowledge the work of Diane Endicott, MS, BSN, RN, and Carol Norton, MUP, in collecting study data. The authors and planners have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Abstract:
Although chemical exposures from cleaning and disinfectant products often go unnoticed or unrecognized, such exposures have been associated with asthma-related symptoms and exacerbations. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) website provides consumer information on a wide range of issues and products related to human health and the environment, including the use of cleaning and disinfectant products, 2,500 of which it has rated in terms of their effects on respiratory function and asthma. In discussing how the use of cleaning and disinfectant products and the frequency of their use may affect asthma control, the authors use the EWG ratings as well as data collected for a study they conducted on older adults with asthma.