TY - JOUR T1 - Domestic use of bleach and infections in children: a multicentre cross-sectional study JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 602 LP - 604 DO - 10.1136/oemed-2014-102701 VL - 72 IS - 8 AU - Lidia Casas AU - Ana Espinosa AU - Alícia Borràs-Santos AU - José Jacobs AU - Esmeralda Krop AU - Dick Heederik AU - Benoit Nemery AU - Juha Pekkanen AU - Anne Hyvärinen AU - Martin Täubel AU - Jan-Paul Zock Y1 - 2015/08/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/72/8/602.abstract N2 - Objective To report the effects of bleach use at home on the frequency of infections in 9102 school-age children participating in the HITEA project.Methods Parents of pupils aged 6–12 years from schools in Barcelona province (Spain), Utrecht province (the Netherlands) and Eastern and Central Finland were administered a questionnaire including questions on the frequency of infections (influenza, tonsillitis, sinusitis, otitis, bronchitis and pneumonia) in the past 12 months and bleach use at home. We developed multivariable mixed-effects multilogistic regression models to obtain relative risk ratios (RRR) and their 95% CI per country, and combined the RRR using random-effects meta-analyses.Results Bleach use was common in Spain (72%, n=1945) and uncommon in Finland (7%, n=279). Overall, the prevalence of infections (recurrent or once) was higher among children of bleach users. Significant combined associations were shown for influenza only once (RRR=1.20, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.38), recurrent tonsillitis (RRR=1.35, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.71) and any infection (RRR=1.18, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.38).Conclusions Passive exposure to cleaning bleach in the home may have adverse effects on school-age children's health by increasing the risk of respiratory and other infections. The high frequency of use of disinfecting irritant cleaning products may be of public health concern, also when exposure occurs during childhood. ER -