Department of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
School of Health and Environmental Science, College of Health Science, Korea University, 145 Anam-Ro, Seongbuk-Gu, 02841, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Oct 2;23(1):1800. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16389-x.
Humidifier disinfectants (HDs) were commonly used household chemicals to prevent microbial growth in a humidifier water tank in South Korea. A growing body of evidence has indicated that its airborne exposure can induce severe lung injury. However, there has been low awareness of other health outcomes in HD users. This study aimed to evaluate health conditions appealed by claimants for compensation in relation with an increased exposure to HD.
From survey data of personal HD exposure assessment of claimants for compensation in Korea, we included a total of 4,179 subjects [cases in each dataset were defined by nine reported health conditions, i.e., pneumonia, asthma, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, otorhinolaryngologic disease, brain disease (including cerebrovascular disease), dermatological disease, lung cancer, and all cancers]. HD exposures was considered as the following exposure criteria: exposure duration, exposure proximity, exposure direction, chemical type, cumulative exposure time, indoor air concentration, and cumulative exposure level. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the associations between HD exposure and health conditions.
After adjusting for sociodemographic and health behavioral factors and other chemical exposures (households, environmental, and occupational exposures), an increase in cumulative HD exposure time was significantly associated with risks of all nine diseases (all p-trends < 0.05). An increase in HD exposure duration was associated with asthma, respiratory disease, otorhinolaryngologic disease, dermatological disease, all cancers, and lung cancer (p-trends < 0.05). Indoor HD concentration was associated with only pneumonia (p-trend = 0.015).
Our findings suggest that cumulative exposures to airborne HD might potentially increase the risk of various reported health outcomes.
加湿器消毒剂（HDs）是一种常见的家用化学品，用于防止韩国加湿器水箱中的微生物生长。越来越多的证据表明，其空气传播暴露会导致严重的肺部损伤。然而，人们对 HD 用户的其他健康后果的认识较低。本研究旨在评估与 HD 暴露增加相关的索赔人提出的健康状况。
从韩国赔偿索赔人个人 HD 暴露评估的调查数据中，我们共纳入了 4179 名受试者[每个数据集的病例定义为九种报告的健康状况，即肺炎、哮喘、心血管疾病、呼吸道疾病、耳鼻喉疾病、脑部疾病（包括脑血管疾病）、皮肤病、肺癌和所有癌症]。HD 暴露被认为具有以下暴露标准：暴露持续时间、暴露接近度、暴露方向、化学类型、累积暴露时间、室内空气浓度和累积暴露水平。使用逻辑回归模型评估 HD 暴露与健康状况之间的关联。
在调整了社会人口统计学和健康行为因素以及其他化学暴露（家庭、环境和职业暴露）后，累积 HD 暴露时间的增加与所有九种疾病的风险显著相关（所有 p 趋势<0.05）。HD 暴露持续时间的增加与哮喘、呼吸道疾病、耳鼻喉疾病、皮肤病、所有癌症和肺癌有关（p 趋势<0.05）。室内 HD 浓度仅与肺炎有关（p 趋势=0.015）。
我们的研究结果表明，空气中 HD 的累积暴露可能会增加各种报告的健康结果的风险。
