Consumer Based Cleaning Product Exposure
People using cleaning and disinfection products face higher risks of developing asthma, compared to the overall working population. Individuals whose jobs involve frequent use of these products such as professional cleaners and healthcare workers experience higher levels of exposure, are especially vulnerable. There are nearly 1 million individuals in the U.S. working as maids and housekeeping cleaners (BLS, 2017).
Despite epidemiological evidence of a link between cleaning product use and asthma, that potentially impacts a significant population of workers, data related to these exposures needed to conduct robust exposure assessments are very limited. These exposure assessments are essential to the risk assessment and risk management processes. In the absence of direct measurement data, exposure models are the tools of choice for estimating exposures. The most reliable results are obtained when appropriate models are used and the data needed to define the values of the model inputs are available.
