Are we too clean for our own good?

Our chemically washed, hygienic environment may be posing a threat to our children’s health. Helen O’Callaghan weighs up the evidence.

The question reared its head recently, with news that parents who regularly clean their homes with bleach could be putting their children at greater risk of catching flu and tonsillitis.

Nine thousand children, aged between six and 12, living in Spain, Finland and the Netherlands, were at the centre of the study, which found passive exposure to bleach in the home is linked to higher rates of childhood respiratory and other infections.