Schoonmaakmiddelen en longproblemen bij baby’s en kleuters*
Uit een Engelse studie blijkt dat kinderen van moeders die regelmatig schoonmaakmiddelen gebruiken tijdens de tweede helft van de zwangerschap en kort daarna een duidelijk grotere kans hebben op een piepende ademhaling en verminderde longfuncties tot zelfs op 8 jarige leeftijd.
Verder onderzoek is nodig om vast te stellen welke chemicaliën hiervoor
verantwoordelijk zijn.
Household cleaning products increase risk for wheezing in children
Children whose mothers used domestic chemicals more frequently in late pregnancy and shortly after birth have increased wheezing during childhood and reduced lung function at 8 years, UK researchers report.
Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, John Henderson (University of Bristol) and colleagues explain that the effect is particularly strong in children without evidence of allergy, so “may result from pre-natal developmental effects or post-natal irritant effects on the developing airway, but is unlikely to be mediated through increased hygiene in the home.”
Henderson and colleagues used a maternal composite household chemical exposure (CHCE) score to examine the use of household chemicals by pregnant women who were enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
(ALSPAC).
The authors assigned wheezing phenotypes for over 7000 children from birth to age 7 years based on reported wheeze, while atopy was assessed by skin-prick tests at age 7.5 years and lung function was measured at age 8.5
years.
The team found that increased CHCE score was associated with early-onset (<18 months) and intermediate-onset (18–30 months) wheezing, and persistent and/or late-onset (>30 months) wheezing in nonatopic children, at adjusted odds ratios per z-score of CHCE of 1.41, 1.43, and 1.69, respectively. Increasing CHCE score was also associated with decrements in FEV1 and forced midexpiratory flow between 25% and 75% of forced vital capacity.
Previous studies have shown a positive association between frequent use of chemicals in the home and persistent wheezing in early childhood, the authors explain. They note that “it has now been confirmed that these associations persist for non-transient wheezing up to 7 years of age, and that they appear to be particularly strong in those children who are not
atopic.”
The authors conclude: “This finding provides an argument against the role of the hygiene hypothesis as an explanation of the association between chemical use and wheezing.”
They add: “Further investigation is required to identify the specific agents responsible and the pathophysiologic mechanisms of this
association.”
Eu Respir J 2008; 31: 547-554 (April
2008)
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