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Pregnant mothers who regularly attend swimming classes may be increasing the risk of their child developing an allergic condition. Scientists believe that commonly-found airborne chemicals, such as chlorine from pools and compounds found in cleaning products could be behind the five-fold increase in inherited allergies during the past 50 years. Exposure to these chemicals may be altering an unborn child�s immune system, leaving them more sensitive to conditions such as eczema, asthma and hay fever. The warning comes from a report in the British Journal of Dermatology that looks at the growing prevalence of these �atopic allergies�. One theory, known as the �hygiene hypothesis�, is that an excessively clean lifestyle has resulted in a generation of children developing immune systems unfamiliar with many germs. As a result, when they are later exposed to new irritants their body is more likely to have an allergic reaction. However, experts from the St John�s Institute of Dermatology in London and the University of Manchester are investigating whether exposure to everyday airborne chemicals �during critical windows of pregnancy/early-life development� have also contributed to the rise. �High-level exposure to volatile organic compounds in the domestic environment either during maternal pregnancy or in early life, is associated with development of childhood atopic disease,� says the report.