According to international research, if you clean your home once a week with national brand products, you may be doing as much damage to your lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 20 years.
Two Decades, Nine Countries, One Sobering Truth
Starting in the 1990s, researchers tracked 6,235 adults across 22 research centers in nine countries. Participants answered questions about cleaning habits and had their lung capacity tested regularly.
Twenty-eight researchers from nine countries analyzed 20 years of results. Their findings, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed that women who cleaned regularly using common brands experienced lung function decline similar to smoking a pack of cigarettes daily.
Permanent Damage That Never Heals
Unlike many tissues, lung tissue rarely recovers once damaged. Exposure to cleaning chemicals causes “fibrotic or other interstitial changes”—scarring that seldom, if ever, heals.
Dr. Cecilie Svanes, professor at the University of Bergen and senior study author, explained: “We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age.”
Scarred lungs restrict breathing for life. That means less oxygen reaching your brain and bloodstream. Less energy. More fatigue. Struggling with stairs or physical activity that used to come easily. These chemicals may be silently stealing the vitality that your future self deserves, without you even knowing it.
Women Are Most at Risk
Women who cleaned using leading brands with toxic chemicals showed respiratory decline. Men didn’t show the same decline. Female lungs react more severely to environmental pollutants.
But the danger doesn’t end when cleaning stops. These chemicals linger in the air for hours—sometimes days—after use. Although children were not included in the study, their developing lungs undoubtedly face devastating danger from exposure to these chemicals.
The Chemical Culprits
The observed lung damage matched that caused by prolonged exposure to ammonia, chlorine bleach, or quaternary disinfectants—chemicals prevalent in national brand bathroom cleaners, glass cleaners, all-purpose sprays, and disinfectants.
Additionally, liquid cleaners proved to be just as dangerous as spray cleaners. Chemicals in liquid products evaporate, so you breathe them just the same.
This acclaimed international study simply confirms what Melaleuca has been saying for decades.
Every cleaning product you bring into your home is a choice. Every bottle either protects your family’s health or destroys it. Your lungs can’t heal from harmful chemicals. But they also can’t be damaged by products you never buy.
A Welcome Solution
Melaleuca’s EcoSense® products are formulated to outperform the competition and do it all without relying on harsh formulas. EcoSense products are so safe they don’t even require child safety caps. After 40 years and billions of bottles sold, our insurance company has never had to pay a single claim. Not one! Your home deserves to be the safest place on earth.
