Traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and health symptoms in custodians

Background: We investigated the associations between traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and dermal, respiratory, and musculoskeletal symptoms in a population of custodians. Methods: We analyzed associations between symptoms and exposure to traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure among 329 custodians. Results: We observed increased odds of dermal (P<0.01), upper (P=0.01) and lower respiratory (P=0.01), and upper extremity (P<0.01), back (P<0.01), and lower extremity (P=0.01) musculoskeletal symptoms associated with increased typical traditional cleaning product exposure. We observed significant trends for increased odds of dermal (P=0.03) and back (P=0.04) and lower (P=0.02) extremity musculoskeletal symptoms associated with increased typical environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure. Conclusions: Fewer positive associations and reduced odds of health symptoms associated with environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure suggest that these products may represent a safer alternative to traditional cleaning products.