Asthma, rhinitis and eczema symptoms all ignited by deodorant sprays

The lingering strong smell of frequent deodorant use amongst teenagers is so common that it has led to teachers taking to online forums to share their complaints about having to teach through the waft of Lynx on a daily basis.

Largely down to their clever marketing campaigns, such as the slogan “Get the look that gets the girl” and many adverts depicting how their sprays can have a major impact with the opposite sex,  Lynx has become the market leader and has a staggering eight million users in just the UK alone.

In fact it is believed that around half of children are using deodorant by the age of 11, with the fear of body odour making them spray themselves far too excessively.

However, this excessive use has led to worry from health experts that over-using deodorant can result in increased inhalation of dangerous aerosol chemicals. This can then cause health problems such as asthma, allergic skin reactions and breathing difficulties.

Maureen Jenkins, director of clinical services at Allergy UK, commented: “Around one in three adults in the UK have some form of allergic disease — asthma, rhinitis or eczema — and their symptoms are easily aggravated by perfumed products and exacerbated by aerosol chemicals. Even people without allergies can be sensitive to chemicals found in cleaning products or toiletries, experiencing skin reactions, breathing difficulties, nausea or headaches. The reactions are made worse when it is an aerosol as the fine mist is easily inhaled.”

Although rare, inhaling aerosols may over time trigger heart problems which could prove fatal.
The Capewell family from Manchester tragically found this out in 1998 when 16-year-old Jonathan Capewell died of a heart attack in the bedroom of his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Jonathan’s 17-year-old sister, Natalie, discovered her brother lay motionless on the floor of his bedroom and raised the alarm.

His father, Keith, 58, recollects: “When we arrived at the hospital, they were still trying to revive him. But about ten minutes later they said he was gone. We were shocked. There had been no warning. They asked if he had a heart condition but there was nothing like that. He was a perfectly normal, healthy boy.”

At the time, Keith spoke about the fact his son would cover his entire body with deodorant at least twice a day and a post-mortem revealed Jonathan had ten times the lethal dosage of butane and propane within his blood. Both are used as aerosol propellants and had built up following several months of high deodorant use.

Jonathan Clague, a consultant heart specialist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, described how aerosol chemicals can cause death: “The main cause of death is usually suffocation, known as hypoxia. If oxygen is not being breathed in and something else is inhaled, such as chemicals, then suffocation occurs and the heart stops.”

The Capewells have been calling for more action to be taken to increase awareness of dangers associated with aerosol deodorants.

Keith says: “Our youngest son Nathan was four when Jonathan died and as soon as he was old enough to use deodorant we drummed into him that he had to open the windows and only use short bursts. He’s 20 now and he does that to this day. I’d like to see warnings on the front of the can, like there are for cigarettes and alcohol. Because we know first-hand that deodorants can be just as fatal.”

Dirty bed sheets can cause asthma and other health problems

A survey has discovered that potentially almost a fifth of Brits are not changing their bed sheets at least once every month, possibly leading to a wide range of bothersome health conditions such as asthma, rhinitis and worsening the symptoms for those who suffer with the skin condition eczema.

Research was commissioned for the home retailer Dunelm Mill, which involved surveying over 2,000 people across the UK on their sleeping habits. TV’s cleaning gurus Kim and Aggie recommend that people should change their bed sheets at least once a week, and it would appear that only about two in five are adhering to their advice.

Approximately half of those surveyed admitted they slept in dirty sheets and it seems women are the more guilty when it comes to not washing the sheets. Over half of the women quizzed admitted that they fail to clean their sheets on a weekly basis, with 12% only bothering to change their sheets just once every month and 1% said they simply never changed them whatsoever.

Perhaps surprisingly, men fared a little better than the women, going some way to showing that men are not domestically lazy as many presume! In fact, 40% of the men who participated in the survey claimed that they did a weekly change of the bed sheets and an additional 8% said that they changed the sheets even more often than this. Overall, 36% of those surveyed do it every two weeks, 17% change just once a month, and 3% are so infrequent in their bed sheet-changing habits that they couldn’t even remember how many times they perform this task.

The research could also possibly suggest which areas around Britain are the most hygiene-conscious. It was found that the Scottish and those in the North West came up tops in regards to sheet-changing habits, with 50% and 51% respectively alternating their sheets once a week, or sometimes even more. On the other end of the scale, only 41% of people in the South East in the survey had similar claims.

There could be many reasons for the relaxed attitude to such a chore. For example, a survey conducted in 2011 by Sheila’s Wheels indicated that many people feel they do not have the time or motivation following a hard day’s work, coming home to prepare tea and then any other jobs that need doing such as food shopping, etc.

The second most common reason stated in the 2011 survey was energy saving. As we are still in the midst of a recession, many households are now struggling to pay bills more than ever, and it can prove a costly exercise for larger families having to wash and dry sheets for everybody. With four beds in a particular household, washing and drying sheets can add at least £1.50 to the cost.

However, cutting back on washing the sheets as regularly as required can end up costly to your health. Dr Adam Fox, a paediatric allergist at a leading London teaching hospital, warned: “Having good bedroom hygiene when it comes to changing your sheets is about more far than just freshening up your linen. We spend about a third of our lives asleep and this is reflected in the debris that we leave between the sheets. Our bodies shed millions of skin cells each day, many of which rub off in our sleep and are deposited in our beds. In addition to skin cells, our bodies also secrete fluids, sweat and oils during a long nights sleep. Whilst unsavoury in themselves, these deposits mostly pose a problem as they are all deliciously appealing for dust mites. Dust mites in themselves are quite harmless; however the droppings of these microscopic creatures are laden with allergens which can cause health complications. When inhaled, these allergens can provoke asthma and rhinitis and may also worsen eczema. In order to reduce the possible problems caused by dust mites the professional recommendation is that people with dust mite allergies should be taking a number of measures to reduce allergen exposure. Those who suffer particularly badly should consider investing in dust mite proof bedding and we should all be making it a priority to wash our sheets on a one to two weekly basis at 60 degrees. It may seem like a bit of a chore but taking these precautions helps to protect against the health complications which may be caused or worsened by the unwanted dust mites which share our sheets.”