Is helping out around the house making you sick?

If your missus is nagging you to help out more around the house, here’s a great excuse that you can use: according to new research, common chemicals found in household products can actually be harmful to your health.

The Irish Independent reports that the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned that items like cleaning products, medicines and cosmetics which contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) could be extremely harmful to humans.

In some cases, these EDCs can actually cause problems such as cancer, reduced fertility in men and obesity. So you can pretty much use this as an excuse for your beer belly too…

A study, which was published by the EEA yesterday, said that there was strong evidence of harm with these products, but stopped short of recommending a complete ban.

The agency stated that products which contain these chemicals “may be a contributing factor behind the significant increases in cancers, diabetes and obesity, falling fertility and an increased number of neurological development problems in both humans and animals.”

The report also said that in recent decades, there has been a “significant growth” in human diseases and that many scientists believe that the increase was connected to the “rising levels of exposure to mixtures of some chemicals in widespread use.”

Speaking about the findings, Jacqueline McGlade, the Executive Director of the EEA said that it would be “prudent” to exert caution around products that contain EDCs until a clearer understanding of their effects is mapped out.

She said that the main problem was not down to exposure to a single chemical, but the “cocktail effect” of many of them together.

So the next time your other half hands you a bottle of multi-purpose cleaner and tells you to tackle the bathroom, simply state that you are not willing to put yourself at risk of lower levels of male fertility should all the ECDs play havoc with your body.

We’re sure she’ll understand…eh…sort of…