"Do Natural and DIY Tea Tree Oil Cleaning Products Disinfect as Well as Bleach?"
Household cleaning products can be hazardous,
landing hundreds of thousands of children in U.S. emergency rooms.
And the product most commonly associated with injury was bleach,
which can be toxic even if used as directed.
We've known that those with asthma who work
with cleaning products day in and day out can suffer adverse respiratory effects,
a worsening of symptoms, decline in lung function, inflamed airways.
But even cleaning workers without asthma can be affected.
Even below so-called acceptable exposure levels,
cleaners with or without reactive airways
can suffer a substantial decrease in lung function.
OK, but that's people who clean for a living.
Although we've known that occupational use of bleach
may have adverse respiratory health effects,
but it was unknown whether just common domestic use of bleach in the household
may put lungs at risk, until now.
Bleach use was significantly associated with nearly 5 times the odds
of non-allergic adult-onset asthma,
as well as ongoing lower respiratory symptoms such as chronic cough.
The way bleach works is as such a strong pro-oxidant
that the thought is that it can lead to leaky lungs and allow allergens to penetrate.
This phenomenon of cleaning product induced asthma
has been known for decades.
More than three quarters of the dozens of population studies looking into it
have found increased risk of asthma or nasal inflammation.
Ideally, safer cleaning products should be available.
Unfortunately, this body of evidence has been largely ignored by
the manufacturers and commercial cleaning companies.
And most of the workers put at risk are women.
In fact, that may help explain some of the gender differences in asthma.
The relatively high frequency of bleach use for home cleaning by women
around the world, together with the strong association
between bleach use and non-allergic asthma,
emphasizes the need for reconsidering the use of bleach for cleaning.
There are natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products
that may offer a safer alternative.
Safer perhaps, but are they as effective?
We didn't know until now.
The effectiveness of three home products in cleaning and disinfection
of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria that causes staph infections,
and E. coli on home environmental surfaces.
The first report ever of the performance of purportedly safer alternatives.
In the home setting, some individuals will select conventional products,
such as bleach due to familiarity; it's a smell some associate with cleanliness.
Others are seeking less hazardous and environmentally preferable
green, organic, or natural disinfectants, which you can buy
or make yourself, so-called DIY: do-it-yourself recipes
that typically involve ingredients like vinegar,
club soda, and plant essential oils, such as tea tree oil,
prized for its antimicrobial qualities.
So researchers pitted head-to-head Clorox bleach
versus a natural disinfectant based on thymol,
which is from thyme essential oil,
versus a DIY recipe---half club soda, half white vinegar,
with a few drops of tea tree oil.
You could probably buy the bleach for around $3,
the natural stuff for more like $7,
but the DIY mix for less than a dollar.
Yeah, but does it work?
On the bottle, it says bleach can kill 99.9% of germs, which is the EPA standard
for the disinfection of surfaces that don't come into contact with food,
like the bathroom sink or something.
They claim 99.9% of germs, but when put to the test,
the bleach actually killed 99.9999% of germs,
completely wiping out the E. coli and staph germs,
which even exceeds the EPA standard for food contact surfaces,
like the kitchen counter,
and so did the expensive natural stuff--- worked just as well as the bleach.
But the club soda, vinegar, tea tree oil concoction flopped,
allowing as many as a few percent of the staph bugs to thrive.
Now, maybe they didn't use enough of the tea tree oil,
only adding about a drop per cup,
but from a performance perspective, the environmentally preferable product
is an effective alternative to conventional bleach,
and I would say even better,
since bleach is well known as a respiratory irritant,
and it's corrosive, too, and may end up damaging surfaces.
What I would find interesting
is to test how effective a cheap DIY thyme oil solution would be.