A study England's University of Bristol researchers indicates exposure to common household cleaning products such as bleach, paint stripper and carpet cleaners may cause wheezing problems in children. In fact, children may be twice as likely to suffer from asthma if they live in a home where these products are used than if they do not.

The study followed 14,000 children since birth and involved 7019 families in the 'Children of the 90s' project. Researchers began by asking pregnant women to document their use of chemically-based products. At the top of this list were disinfectant, bleach, carpet cleaner, window cleaner, dry cleaning fluid, aerosols, turpentine or white spirit, air fresheners, paint stripper, paint or varnish and pesticides or insecticides. Each family was then asked to record the frequency with which they used these products.

The study showed that while 71.2 percent of children under three and a half never wheezed, 19.1 percent started to wheeze as babies but not when they were older. 3.5 percent developed a wheeze problems after age two and a half, while 6.2 percent had a persistent wheeze throughout.

Dr Andrea Sherriff, who authored the report said, 'These findings suggest that children whose mothers made frequent use of chemical-based domestic products during pregnancy were more likely to wheeze