Disposable Diapers Linked to 'Asthma-Like' Conditions in Mice
Oct. 18, 1999 (Atlanta) -- What's in clean diapers could possibly be even worse than what's in dirty ones. A study published in the September/October issue of the journal Archives of Environmental Health indicates that the emissions given off by some disposable diapers cause "asthma-like conditions" in mice.
"We can't leap up and say we know this has a necessary human consequence," says Rosalind C. Anderson, PhD, the head of the privately funded Anderson Laboratories in Vermont. Anderson, who is the lead author of the study, tells WebMD, "We're fearful that it might, but we don't do the kind of study that would allow this statement."
But, says Anderson, "You don't look at a diaper, and say 'Baby, dear, this might give you asthma.' You look at a diaper and you say 'Hot dog! I've got something real convenient and it works and it's going to save me a lot of washing.'"
"We [Anderson Lab researchers] keep finding consumer products that are not what you want them to be, and this is yet another situation," Anderson says. According to the study, "the results demonstrate that some type of disposable diapers emit mixtures of chemicals that are toxic to the respiratory tract."
Anderson says the conditions are "very like what is known as occupational asthma," which is brought on by environmental conditions rather than an allergic reaction.
Russ Rader, spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), reviewed the study for WebMD. He says, "We have not seen any problem with infants having asthma-like or adverse conditions to diapers."
Most of the complaints in the past, according to Rader, concerned skin conditions or fears of children breathing in super-absorbent materials when diapers were torn open. The diapers were found safe in those cases.
Although he was aware the CPSC had issued guidelines for dealing with new carpet fumes, for instance, Rader tells WebMD, "We haven't seen anything like what's discussed in this study in terms of the reaction to mice. We haven't seen anything like that with infants." The study was passed on to a CPSC toxicologist.