Toxic bleach warning
Household chemicals ‘can mix with air fresheners to create breathing problems’
CLEANING the house with bleach could put families and pets at risk of breathing problems, say scientists.
Its chemicals can mix with those in air fresheners to form potentially harmful substances which when exposed to sunlight or electric lights cause indoor air pollution.
A study discovered the possible health threat from limonene and alpha-pinene, which are used in everything from scented candles to plug-in air fresheners to give cleaning products pleasant orange, lemon and pine scents.
It is already known that these chemicals can react with ozone to become formaldehyde, causing the Government to issue advice about them earlier this year. But researchers have now found they combine with fumes from cleaning products containing bleach.
Light coming in through windows or from indoors turns the chemicals into airborne particles of the type which can be inhaled, get into the lungs and aggravate conditions like asthma.
Experts, who tested this chemical reaction in the laboratory, cannot conclude categorically that people will develop breathing problems as a result.
But Professor Jonathan Abbatt, senior author of the study, from the University of Toronto, Canada, said: ‘The general advice is to not mix cleaners because of possible interactions between them and to keep the air well ventilated when cleaning. We don’t know about the health effects, because that is not what we study, but small particles are associated with respiratory problems.’
The UK Government’s Clean Air Strategy in January gave advice on what people could do to avoid indoor pollution, which can come from cars outside, cooking fumes and household products.
It included advising people to use unperfumed cleaning products and being wary of lime and pine fragrances, which can react with indoor air.
The new study looked at two chemicals produced by bleach in cleaning products – hypochlorous acid and chlorine gas.
These chemicals can accumulate to relatively high levels in modern homes, which tend to be so well insulated to keep heat in that they are poorly ventilated and trap gases inside. Researchers used a chamber in the laboratory to study the reaction of these chemicals with limonene, which creates the citrus fragrance in perfumes and air fresheners and, separately, alpha-pinene. This smells of pine and is used in similar products.
When they uncovered a window two metres (6.5ft) away, the chemicals reacted with the sunlight to form ‘secondary organic aerosols’, which are airborne particles that cause indoor pollution.
The same thing happened using fluorescent lightbulbs, suggesting that people who clean at night are also at risk of inhaling potentially harmful compounds.
Dr Chen Wang, first author of the study, told American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology: ‘Indoor use of bleach cleaning products leads to particle formation under indoor lights due to reaction with limonene and alpha-pinene. The formed particles potentially have hazardous effects to health.’
‘Be wary of pine and lime’