Asthma and chemicals/cleaners - Asthma Message Board

momtobaby1 · 09-07-2008, 12:04 PM

Somehow I honestly did not realize that chemicals/cleaners could be a real problem for people with asthma. I was only diagnosed 3 months ago so I guess that explains it. I still feel rather stupid that I didn't realize this. This morning I decided to spray this stuff to kill knats. We had some that had "developed" because of some fruit left out. So I completely clear the dining room table off and I spray the entire room. I then turn the ceiling fan on and open some windows to ventilate the room. I figured some of the spray/mist had probably landed on the table so I cleaned that real well. Issue is that within minutes of spraying it I noticed some slight wheezing. I am not a wheezer either. I thought it would go away with some proper ventilation in the room but it didn't. I checked my peak flow to see if it showed any change and it did. It wasn't in a real severe range but it was around 60 points lower than it had been shortly before. I used my albuterol and my peak flows went back up to where they had been before. I wasn't feeling a whole lot of symptoms other than the wheezing and coughing but I felt it was better to be preemptive rather than deal with a full attack.

I guess there is a lot left to be learned, and I'll be much more careful after this with chemicals and cleaners.

Titchou · 09-07-2008, 01:10 PM

I would take a puff of your albuterol before doing any more cleaning like this. I have to watch using certain products too. Trial and error.

engineer1961 · 09-07-2008, 05:09 PM

Cleaners and chemicals really can be deadly for asthmatics, and even if something didn't effect you're lungs once that doesn't mean it wont the next time you smell it ......I've got a huge list of sense I can't be in thw same hosue with , on the topm of the list would be my old time favorite perfume SUNG , I wore it for years and then it just progressively started bothering me untile the point where it started to give me instant attacks. Bleach is a biggy to and these little very intense Glad air freshener all have our triggers you're pocket ), both make me end up in the hospital everytime I get a whiff of them. We all have different triggers and they can change from day to day ..so be aware and be carefull and well all live longer

momtobaby1 · 09-07-2008, 08:12 PM

Would it be normal to have residual effects from something like this? This happened almost 12 hours ago now and after the initial drop in peak flow and use of the albuterol my rates did go back up to normal. Now they are dropping again. An hour ago when I did my nightly check they were borderline green/yellow and now have gone slightly into the yellow. I'm not feeling too much, just slight chest discomfort. I'm inclined at this point to just wait and see because it may have nothing to do at all with the icky bug spray this morning. I've also got a headache and my throat has hurt somewhat all day though so I guess I wouldn't be totally surprised if it were that.

Titchou · 09-08-2008, 05:19 AM

Sounds normal to me. It'll take a while to get over the attack. Some of that stuff is still probably floating around in the air.