An index to identify differences in custodians' exposures to cleaning chemicals

Background and Objectives: Cleaning chemicals used by custodians are associated with adverse health outcomes. Exposure to cleaning chemicals may vary across groups of custodians. The goal of this study was to develop an exposure index that could be used to evaluate differences in custodians’ exposures to cleaning chemicals based on individual or work environmental factors.

Methods: 318 custodians, lead custodians, and supervising custodians at four Connecticut institutions completed a survey including information about individual and work environmental factors and frequency and type of cleaning chemical use. Exposure indices were developed for each participant by summing the number of chemicals that each participant reported using, weighted by frequency of use. Univariate linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate whether there were significant (two-tailed p<0.05) differences in exposure indices by demographic and occupational characteristics.

Results: There were significant (p<0.01) differences in exposure indices by gender, shift, years worked, and primary language spoken. Greater exposure was associated with working the first shift, speaking English as primary language, greater number of years worked in the cleaning industry, and male sex.  Similar trends were noted when exposure indices were calculated for “green” and “traditional” cleaning chemicals separately.

Discussion:  Differences among custodians in exposure indices by individual and work environmental factors were observed. The relationship between exposure indices and health outcomes, as well as the contribution of cleaning tasks to exposure indices, will be explored in future analyses.