by: Karon Beattie

Inexpensive, easy-to-clean plastic materials used to cover walls and floors may put young children at increased risk of developing respiratory tract problems, results of a recent study suggest.

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Researchers found that children who lived in homes in which the walls were covered with plastic materials were more likely to suffer from problems of the lower respiratory tract such as persistent wheezing, a prolonged cough and phlegm.

These children were also more likely to be diagnosed with asthma or pneumonia, the report indicates. However, the study could not conclusively prove that the wall coverings were the cause of the respiratory ailments. It is possible that parents installed such coverings because the children had respiratory problems.

"Emissions from plastic materials indoors may have adverse effects on the lower respiratory tracts of small children," write Dr. Jouni Jaakkola and colleagues in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of the American Public Health Association. Such materials can emit chemicals, such as plasticizer agents used in the production of polyvinyl chloride.

"These chemicals may cause airway inflammation and thus increase the risk of bronchial obstruction, asthma, and perhaps susceptibility to respiratory infections," the authors add.

Jaakkola, of the Nordic School of Public Health in Goteborg, and colleagues at the University of Helsinki, Sweden, and Oxford University in the UK surveyed the parents of more than 2,500 Finnish children aged 1 to 7 years. The investigators found that plastic wall materials were present in less than 3% of homes and that about 2% of all the children had asthma. The researchers did not actually measure the amounts of chemicals in the homes of the children.

"Given the vast number of chemicals present in plastics and other building materials, it is not feasible to measure all of the relevant compounds in indoor air," Jaakkola's team notes.

Their findings "provide additional evidence that indoor plastic materials may emit chemicals that have adverse effects on the lower respiratory tracts of small children," according to the report. The results "warrant further attention to the types of plastic materials used in interior decoration.

American Journal of Public Health 2000;90:797-799.

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