Reccommended product 5000 Vocarb From: $599.98 This unit is designed to treat volatile organic compounds, odors and other airborne pollutants. It features a special carbon blend and a HEPA filter for particles.

(UK Daily Mail)  Expectant mothers who use a lot of household cleaning products may increase the risk of their child developing asthma, claim researchers.

They found a link between high exposure to everyday products such as bleach and air freshener in women during pregnancy, or shortly after birth, and wheezing and asthma in their young children .

Children exposed to these products had up to a 41 per cent increase in the risk of persistent wheezing by the age of seven, and had slightly lower than normal lung function.

Experts behind the study, which looked at more than 7,000 families and is published in the European Respiratory Journal, are uncertain about which chemicals are to blame, although previous research suggests fumes called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, could be responsible.

More than 1.4million British children have asthma. Rates have shot up four-fold since the 1970s.

The latest study was headed by Dr John Henderson, an expert in paediatric respiratory medicine at Bristol University.

He said small children coming from cleaner homes might be more likely to develop asthma.

"We think that is perhaps due to irritant effects of the chemicals on the child after birth, which may cause inflammation of the airways leading to development of asthma," he said.

"This research points to direct effects of chemical-exposure on lung development or irritation of the airways after birth."

Researchers found the most commonly used household chemicals included disinfectant and bleach - used by more than four in five mothers - and window cleaner, air fresheners and aerosols, found in two-thirds of homes.

Others included carpet cleaner and white spirit.

They found higher levels of VOCs in homes where there was greater use of products such as air fresheners and aerosols.

There was a link between higher exposure of expectant mothers to household chemicals for persistent wheezing in offspring, equivalent to a 41 per cent increase overall.

Lung function was also slightly worse among children of mothers with high exposure before birth.

Source: UK Daily Mail
Author: JENNY HOPE