Objective There is a large number of household cleaning chemical products available in the market for consumers and domestic cleaners. Online catalogs of major US retailers showed that there are over 450 different household cleaning products for sale. The objective of this study was to identify the household chemical products available for domestic cleaners and consumers as part of a study aimed at studying exposure to cleaning chemicals in Latinx domestic cleaners in New York City.

Methods We organized focus groups and interviews to develop a survey for Latinx cleaners in NYC. The survey was used to collect detailed information about the most common household cleaning tasks and cleaning product use in 400 Latinx domestic cleaners. In addition, we visited 95 retail stores in Latinx dense neighborhood in NYC to identify the types of household cleaning products available for sale. Finally, we created an inventory of household cleaning products available in the market for consumers and domestic cleaners and reviewed Safety Data Sheets to identify common chemical ingredients reported by manufacturers.

Results Despite a large number of cleaning chemicals available in the US market, Latinx domestic cleaners use less than 50 products for household cleaning during their jobs. In visits to retail stores we found that over 25% of the household cleaning products available for sale contain disinfectants such as Quaternary Ammonium Compounds and that over 80% of the products contain a scent.

Conclusion A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods allowed us to determine the most common products domestic Latinx cleaners use and can be exposed while at work. This information will be used in a study to measure inhalation and dermal exposures in domestic cleaning.