Household Use of Green Cleaning Products, Disinfecting Wipes, and Asthma Control Among Adults

The use of household disinfectants and cleaning products (HDCPs) may negatively impact asthma control, but studies remain scarce. Moreover, no study considered green products or wipes, increasingly used during home cleaning.

To assess the associations between the use of HDCPs, including disinfecting wipes and green products, and asthma control based on data from the French Web-based NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Using a standardized questionnaire (2018), we assessed asthma control (never asthma: reference; controlled: Asthma Control Test ≥ 20; uncontrolled: Asthma Control Test < 20) and the use of HDCPs, including 2 types of products (irritants and green products) and 2 application modes (sprays and disinfecting wipes). Cross-sectional associations of the frequency of weekly use of HDCPs at home with asthma control, adjusted for sex, age, smoking status, body mass index, and educational level were assessed by multinomial logistic regressions.

Analyses were performed on 37,043 adults (mean age 47 y; 75% women; 62% with a weekly use of at least 1 HDCP). Strong associations were observed between weekly use of HDCPs and uncontrolled asthma. In particular, an almost daily use (4-7 d/wk) of irritants (odds ratio [OR] 2.81; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.97-4.00) and green products (OR 2.40; 95% CI 1.70-3.39) as well as sprays (OR 2.69; 95% CI 1.97-3.68) and disinfecting wipes (OR 3.51; 95% CI 2.31-5.33) was associated with uncontrolled asthma. When not co-used with irritants and sprays, associations remained statistically significant for both disinfecting wipes and green products.

Weekly use of HDCPs, including green products or wipes, was associated with uncontrolled asthma and should be considered by health practitioners in order to improve asthma control.