Childhood respiratory problems, including asthma, may be linked to inhaling the mixture of chemicals emitted from disposable diapers. Chemical emissions of some disposable diapers have immediate health effects in animals breathing the diluted chemical mixtures. Upon analysis, the diaper emissions were found to include several chemicals with documented respiratory toxicity. In contrast to the results obtained with disposables, new cloth diapers produced very little respiratory effects and appeared to be the least toxic choice for a consumer. The current epidemic in childhood asthma cannot be explained solely on the basis of the usual suspects: dust mites, cockroaches, maternal smoking. Maybe child-care products such as plastic diapers... plastic baby bottles, and plastic toys are important factors through the release of chemicals with toxic effects.

Archives of Environmental Medicine September/October 1999.

COMMENT: It is wise to avoid chemicals if at all possible. However the researchers in this study, like most traditional medical doctors, are virtually clueless when it comes to the profound impact that diet has on most allergies. Milk is far and away the largest cause of allergies in children. It is the insistence of our culture that this is a necessary food that contributes to this. This would not only include the milk-based infant formulas but all the milk that breast-feeding moms drink while they are nursing their child. Beyond that of course, once children start eating solid foods, the insistence on using grains as a primary food further worsens genetic predispositions to allergic tendencies like asthma.