Use of household cleaning products, exhaled nitric oxide and lung function in females.

Abstract

To the Editor: We read with great interest, a report by Casas et al. [1], in a recent issue of the European Respiratory Journal, who studied the relationship between domestic use of cleaning products, reported by the mother, and exhaled nitric oxide fraction ( F eNO) and lung function in children. They concluded that passive exposure to cleaning products may increase airway inflammation in children and may have an adverse effect on lung function [1]. Cleaning products contain numerous chemicals such as irritants (bleach and ammonia) or sensitisers (perfumes) and may cause asthma [2]. The mechanisms are partly unknown [1–3], but could be related to chronic inflammatory changes [4, 5]. The results presented by Casas et al. [1] are of great importance and are consistent with the hypothesis of an inflammatory role of cleaning agents. We similarly tested the hypothesis of an inflammatory effect of domestic use of cleaning products among adults, by studying their relationships with F eNO among 313 females (197 without asthma and 116 with current asthma; mean age 42 years; 53% never-smokers) from the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA) [3, 6]. Both domestic exposures and phenotypes were evaluated by similar methods to those reported by Casas et al. [1]. Briefly, EGEA is a French cohort study based on an initial group of asthma cases, their first-degree relatives, and controls (1991–1995). A follow-up of the cohort was conducted between 2003 and 2007, and detailed information was recorded by questionnaires and health examinations such as pulmonary lung function tests [3, 6]. F eNO measurements, available in three out of five centres (performed for 313 out of 683 females), …