New Study Confirms Lung Damage linked to National Brand Cleaners!

Numerous toxic chemicals in national brand home cleaners are as damaging to lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years.

Have you ever considered cleaning your home dangerous?

Cleaning your home may seem safe enough until you consider what many toxic cleaning products are doing to your lungs. As reported by news outlets around the world, a new 20-year independent study finds that using national brand cleaners as little as once a week is as damaging to lung capacity as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years!

A new, independent study based on 20 years of research and published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reveals a sobering fact: cleaning your home with national brand cleaners as little as once per week significantly and permanently damages lung tissue. Almost all the cleaning products that you buy at the grocery store are made with a multitude of harmful chemicals.

According to the study, some of the likely culprits are ammonia, chlorine bleach, and quaternary disinfectant compounds. But there are also many other dangerous compounds that mane brand cleaners commonly use.

The study also showed that cleaning with products that contain dangerous chemicals as little as once per week was as damaging over time to respiratory health as smoking a pack of cigarette a day for 20 days!

Cleaning your home once a weed could damage your lungs as much as smoking 7 packs of cigarettes a week. 

Study Details:

• The 20-year longitudinal study,
• completely independent, 
• 6235 male and female subjects, 
• the average age of 34 at beginning of the study; 54 at the conclusion, 
• use of spray and liquid home cleaning products monitored, lung capacity tested regularly, 
• result complied by 28 top researchers from 9 countries, 
• peer-reviewed and published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical care Medicine.

Finding 1: Weekly use of home cleaning products is as damaging to lung health as smoking 20 cigarettes per day.

By now, just about everyone knows the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Among their many hazards is depleted lung capacity- the result of damage to the tender internal tissues of the respiratory system. Shockingly, the study concludes that women who used home cleaning products as little as once per week saw the same reduction in lung capacity as those who smoked a pack a day over the same period.

Finding 2: Women are affected far more than men.

Though there was a clear correlation between women who cleaned at home or for work and respiratory illness, there was less correlation for men. While not completely unaffected, male lungs have been proven to endure greater exposure to environmental pollutants before experiencing a similar drop in lung capacity. This finding is particularly concerning considering women engage with cleaning products more frequently than men.

Finding 3: Cleaning at home is just as harmful as being an occupational cleaner, if not more so.

The study survey categorized participants as "not cleaning", "cleaning at home", and "occupational cleaning". Surprisingly, the "cleaning at home" group saw the same decreases in lung health as "occupational cleaning". Using cleaning products within the relaxed, comfortable confines of a home may actually lend to a general complacency that ultimately leads to impaired health.

Find 4: Liquid cleaners are just as dangerous as sprays.

Study researchers originally suspected that products delivered through a spray or mist would prove more dangerous than those applied as a liquid, gel, or wipe. The study found no significant difference between cleaner delivery types.

Finding 5: Dangerous chemicals including ammonia, chlorine bleach, and quaternary disinfectant compounds appear to be primary culprits.

In their conclusions, the researchers stated, "one could hypothesize that long-term exposure to airway irritants such as ammonia and bleach used when cleaning at home could cause fibrotic or other interstitial changes in the lung tissue, thereby leading to the accelerated decline of FVC(forced vital capacity)

Find 6: Women who regularly use cleaning products have increasing rates of asthma.

Researchers found increased rates of asthma within the groups who used cleaning products regularly. This echoes multiple recent studies that have clearly linked the use of dangerous chemical cleaning agents with the unfortunate onset of asthma.

Finding 7: Damage is cumulative over time.

When toxic chemicals - like those found in nearly all national brand cleaning products-are regularly inhaled into the sensitive tissues within the lungs, it makes sense that respiratory problems would result. "Exposure to cleaning chemicals", the researchers wrote,"could result in accelerated lung function decline and chronic airway obstruction; low-grade inflammation over many years could possibly lead to persistent damage to the airways."

Household cleaners are even more dangerous than anyone imagined.

Most of the companies that manufacture the national cleaning brand knowingly choose to formulate with dangerous chemicals. Almost all cleaning products you'll find in the grocery store contain numerous toxic ingredients, including, but not limited to, the following:

CHLORINE BLEACH

• 2000 Flushes Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Cascade Complete with Clorox
• Clorox Bathroom Cleaner with Bleach
• Clorox Bleach
• Clorox Clean-up All-purpose Cleaner
• Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Fantastik 5-in1 All-purpose Cleaner
• Great Value All Purpose Cleaner with Bleach
• Kaboom Shower, Tub&Tile Cleaner
• Lysol Mold&Mildew Bathroom Cleaner
• Redi Shine Bathroom Cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles Foaming Bleach Bathroom Cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles Multi-Surface Bathroom Cleaner
• Soft Scrub with Bleach
• The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach

AMMONIA

• Great Value Glass Cleaner
• Misty Glass & Mirror Cleaner
• Spartan Glass Cleaner
• Windex Original

QUATERNARY DISINFECTANT COMPOUNDS

• Clorox Bathroom Disinfecting Bleach-Free Cleaner
• Clorox Disinfecting Wipes
• Formula 409 Multi-surface Cleaner
• Great Value Disinfectant Spray
• Lysol All-purpose Cleaner
• Lysol Disinfectant Spray
• Lysol Disinfecting Wipes
• Spic and Span Everyday Antibacterial Cleaner

AND MANY MORE...

CHLORINE BLEACH

Highly toxic ingredient that has been used for decades in national brand cleaning products.

• Harmful or fatal if swallowed.
• Attacks the membranes in your respiratory system, which can lead to permanent lung damage.
• Toxic gas is formed when chlorine bleach is mixed with other cleaning products.
• Poison Control Center fields over 40,000 calls a year related to exposure to chlorine bleach.

AMMONIA

A cheap, toxic, and dangerous household cleaning ingredient.

• Avoid breathing fumes.
• May lead to coughing and difficulty breathing.
• Prolonged exposure can cause eye irritation and damage to lung tissue.
• Use protective gloves when cleaning with ammonia.

THE PROOF IS ON THE LABEL

Most national brand cleaners containing these toxic chemicals are required to put the dangers they contain right on the label. Take a look for yourself.

What can you do?

For those who try to keep a clean, safe home, the results of the study are an imperative call to action. If you haven't done so already, now is the time to rid of your home of the dangerous national brand cleaning product that contains so many harmful chemicals!

Join with Melaleuca and people all across the globe as we get the toxic, dangerous chemicals out of homes for good.

Protect your family today! Replace national brand cleaning products with Melaleuca EcoSense Products!

SIMPLE STEPS FOR A SAFER HOME:

LOOK

Identify harmful chemicals in products under the kitchen sink, in the pantry, bathroom cabinets, garage, or laundry room – anywhere dangerous cleaners may be lurking!

REMOVE

Gather up all the national brand cleaners and dangerous chemicals you find, box them up, and get them out!

DISCARD

Make sure you check with your local waste disposal facility or county public health for any special instructions as some of these cleaners are treated as hazardous waste.

SHARE

Once you’ve rid your home of all of the dangerous chemicals, celebrate by sharing your experience.

Post your stories and pictures with #saferforyourhome.

SWITCH

Melaleuca is proud to offer safer, non-toxic EcoSense cleaning products that never put you or your family at risk.

Talk About a breath of fresh air!

Millions trust EcoSense for a safer, healthier, more effective cleaning solution. Melaleuca has taken a firm stance on dangerous chemicals like ammonia, quaternary disinfectants, and chlorine bleach. We don’t use them! We never have, and we never will! This is why EcoSense cleaning products are so safe, no childproof caps are required. And it’s why you can clean your home with confidence–instead of holding your breath.