People with asthma or allergies should avoid products such as air fresheners and other chemicals used to spread fragrance throughout the house, researchers say.
A 2009 study by Caress and Anne Steinenmann at the University of Washington found that nearly a third of people with asthma also have chemical hypersensitivity, and more than a third reported irritation from scented products, LiveScience reports.
"The more you're around, the more likely it is to cause an attack," Caress said, as reported by LiveScience. "People with asthma, many of them should try to avoid artificially fragranced products."
Symptoms can include nasal congestion and even altered lung function.
"The chemicals in some of these products can trigger the nasal congestion, sneezing and the runny nose," Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with Emory University and the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, as reported by LiveScience. "With the asthmatics, there's really good data showing their lung function changes when they're exposed to these compounds."
Fineman, the incoming president of American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, spoke at the group's meeting Monday in hopes to spread awareness of the problem.
