As a guy, we often possess the innate ability to overlook some smudges or small messes that our better halves (wives) quickly spot. Our spouses are much better at keeping things spotless, but apparently this may come at a price. A fellow physician recently shared an article and its press release with me that linked cleaning chemical exposures at home and work with increased rates of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This long-term study uncovered a significant contribution of household or occupational cleaning chemicals to the development of COPD in women, but not men. These women may have lived in spotless homes, it seems that their lungs ended up no so spotless.
Our society appears bent on destroying our health with a barrage of chemicals everywhere we look. Our food is laced with toxins and endocrine disruptors. Our water supply is overburdened with endless poisons. Our homes are constructed with plastics and give off VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). Therefore, this does not surprise me. I have also written elsewhere about other research which looked at the lung health of nurses who used cleaners in the hospital. Here we have another piece of evidence that we are killing ourselves slowly.
Does that leave us to wallow in dust and grime avoiding all cleaners? Not so fast. A little common sense and splitting the horns of this dilemma will go a long way in keeping our house AND lungs spotless. With the recognition of our society’s self-intoxication has come a growing assortment of natural cleaning options. While a head to head study comparing the safety of traditional versus natural cleaning option is absent (and is unlikely to even come about in human testing anyway), we can likely extrapolate that safer options do exist. We may also want to consider the commonsense actions of careful practices like “not breathing the fumes” or wearing face masks during the work. Again direct comparison studies are unlikely to pop up anytime soon (they would require 15 to 20 years for a true comparison), but why wait when a little logic could protect you now?
For a great summary, read the American Thoracic Society’s press release. Then ask yourself why this particular public health issue has not garnered more attention. While they compare the effects of using these cleaning chemicals to just under 20 pack years of smoking, I have not heard of any public campaign to curtail cleaning chemical usage. If we want to help others live a healthier more abundant life of good lung function, we must do more than just tell them to stop smoking. As a functional MD, we want to treat the whole person and their whole life.
American Thoracic Society Press Release February 2018
Research from which Press Release Summary was extracted:
Lancet Respir Med. 2017 Sep;5(9):691-706. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(17)30293-X. Epub 2017 Aug 16.
Global, regional, and national deaths, prevalence, disability-adjusted life years, and years lived with disability for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015.
GBD 2015 Chronic Respiratory Disease Collaborators.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
This is topic needs a lot of attention and education. May it go viral. I would love to interview you for airing on WRFN in Nashville.
Would love to help get the word out on this on WRFN. Talk to Georgia (back in office tomorrow) about details 615 721 2001.