Cleaning is not only tedious, it can also be quite dangerous. Repeated cleaning can be just as harmful to your health as smoking – a study has now proven that.
Munich – Everyone knows it: The light falls through the panes and reveals every stain and the sink urgently needs to be cleaned again – not to mention the kitchen. If you are now looking for an excuse not to have to do the household cleaning, you will find it: cleaning can be almost as harmful to your health as smoking.
Strictly speaking, it is not the cleaning itself, but the cleaning agents used that have a harmful effect on health. Researchers at the University of Bergen came to this conclusion in a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine . For the study, 6230 participants were tested for their lung and respiratory functions over a period of 20 years.
Regular cleaning: A pulmonary effort like chain smoking
The result of the study: In women who frequently clean at home or work as a cleaner, there is an accelerated decrease in lung function and a long-term health risk for the respiratory tract. The lung performance of professional cleaners is comparable to people who have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years.
The majority of study participants are women, with the majority reporting that they are the person who cleans at home (85.1%). In comparison, only 46.5% of male participants say they use rags and remedies at home. Surprisingly, in men, cleansing cannot be associated with a deterioration in lung function. However, the researchers point out that the number of male test subjects cleaning is not particularly high and that the significance of the information is therefore lower.
Dangerous cleaning: Better soap than sprays
The fact that cleaning can be just as bad for your health as chain smoking is mainly due to the chemicals in the cleaning agents. Cleaning sprays in particular can cause long-term health damage, as the ingredients remain in the air long after they have been sprayed and are inhaled again and again.
If you want to avoid all the chemicals, you should rather use warm (but not too hot) water, a little soap and a good microfiber cloth. “The results of the study support the need to prevent harmful exposure of the respiratory tract to cleaning activities,” explains the study’s lead author, Øistein Svanes. (ij) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
