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Air Fresheners and Baby
Could Freshening the Air Be Harming Baby?
By Shannon McKelden
Air fresheners, including sprays, "plug-ins" and candles, are all the rage these days. Entire aisles are devoted to them in supermarkets, and the television is flooded with commercials for the latest way to clean, deodorize or scent our homes.
Infants inevitably bring with them a few unpleasant odors, so the nursery isn't always the freshest-smelling room, but are air fresheners the answer? Are these products even safe in homes with infants?
According to Dr. Stanley Fineman, allergist at Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, the answer is no. "[Air fresheners] emit volatile organic compounds and have been associated with increased incidence of respiratory problems and asthma in children living in homes with these products," he says.
Don't let the term "organic" fool you. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, include a variety of chemicals released as gases from certain solids or liquids, and some of these may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Furthermore, the EPA says, "Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to 10 times higher) than outdoors."
Well-meaning parents, to help the air in their homes smell fresher (giving the illusion of "cleaner"), may actually add to the high concentration of VOCs in their homes. "Volatile organic compounds are found in most of the commonly used home air fresheners and deodorizers," Dr. Fineman says. "These can cause irritation of the lining of the respiratory passages. This is a particular problem for infants who have fragile, developing airways."
Alisa Bowman discovered how sensitive a baby's respiratory system is when her daughter was an infant. "I was getting ready to go out one night," says the Emmaus, Pa., resident. "I put on hairspray. Then I picked her up. She started screaming – and I mean screaming in a way that I'd never heard her do before." Bowman's daughter finally stopped crying when her father held her for a while. After speaking to their physician, they found nothing wrong with her. "It wasn't until the next time I put on hairspray (I don't wear it very often) and she did the screaming thing again that I linked the two together," she says.
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Re: Air Fresheners and Baby by renee on 10/17/2008 01:15PM
Never even thought about the effects of spraying air fresheners, lighting candles, etc., around my baby. Thank you for bringing up this subject. I will definitely talk to my son's pediatrician about it at his next visit.