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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Impact of Cleaning Products on Women's Lungs as Damaging as 20-a-Day Cigarette Habit: Study [newsweek.com]

Regular use of cleaning sprays can have as much of an impact on health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, according to a new study. Scientists at Norway's University of Bergen tracked 6,000 people, with an average age of 34 at the time of enrolement in the study, who used the products over a period of two decades, according to the research published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine [thoracic.org] [open, DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201706-1311OC] [DX [doi.org]].

They found that lung function decline in women regularly using the products, such as cleaners, was equivalent over the period to those with a 20 cigarettes a day smoking habit. [...] The experts attribute the decline in lung function to the damage that cleaning agents cause to the mucous membranes lining the airways, resulting over time in persistent changes.

The results follow a study by French scientists [newsweek.com] in September, 2017, who found that that nurses who used disinfectants to clean surfaces at least once a week had a 24-percent to 32-percent increased risk of developing lung disease.

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