As most parents know, childhood asthma is on the rise. In fact,
1 in 10 American kids now develops this chronic health condition
during childhood. If your child is fortunate enough to be
asthma-free, chances are she or he has at least one school or
daycare buddy with the disease. And it’s not just kids. Turns
out teachers also suffer significantly higher rates of this
life-threatening condition. So as researchers and children’s
health advocates at Environmental Working Group, we wanted to
know whether the cleaning supplies used in schools might have
something to do with this trend, since they’re a common source
of indoor air contaminants. The Bad News First: Common school
cleaners dirty the classroom air To better understand the
potential link between asthma and school cleaners, we ordered up
sophisticated air pollution tests for 21 common school cleaning
products. These tests showed that as a group, these 21 products
release into the air no fewer than 457 distinct chemicals. 457!
And six of them are known to