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Spray disinfectants are everywhere, and using them feels routine. We spray them, inhale them, and carry on thinking nothing of it. However, a new study is raising concerns about something most people overlook about breathing in disinfectant sprays. Researchers found in lab tests that inhaling common cleaning chemicals caused much more lung damage than ingesting them.
According to the study, quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), which are commonly found in disinfectants, had dramatically different effects depending on how exposure occurred. Notably, inhalation led to 100 times more lung injury and was 100 times more lethal than oral exposure.
First introduced in the 1940s, QACs have long been used for disinfection. On their own, they don’t easily turn into fumes, but in spray form they can become airborne and enter the lungs. These compounds are also used in herbicides and are found in everyday items such as nasal sprays, eye drops, mouthwash, fabric softeners and dryer sheets. These compounds are designated by the EPA as widely-manufactured chemicals, reflecting annual production or import volumes exceeding one million pounds in the United States.
In a controlled experiment, researchers delivered measured doses of the chemicals straight into the mice’s airways to mimic inhalation from a disinfectant spray. Harmful effects appeared at far lower doses than with ingestion. As sprays, the chemicals break into fine droplets that can be breathed deep into the lungs. In short, the lungs act as a far more efficient entry point than the gut, and the toll on the body is much higher.
These findings aren’t a call to abandon disinfectants, but they do point to overlooked risks, particularly once these chemicals are released into the air and inhaled. The results call for greater examination of how these products are used, concluding that the extensive use of QAC-based disinfectant sprays should be reconsidered in light of their confirmed lung toxicity in mice.
To view the original scientific study click below:
Differential and Sex-Specific Toxicity of Aspirated Quaternary Ammonium Compounds
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