During the disintegration of the Soviet Union, was there a surge of child allergies in Tajikistan because people hoarded soap?

Question

The Hesitant U.S. Rescue of the Soviet Economy Wilson Quarterly (Fall 2016):

By November 1990, Professor Graham Allison of Harvard University had become alarmed at the deterioration of the Soviet economy. Partial reforms had allowed cooperatives to make and keep profits and raise salaries, but prices remained fixed to maintain social stability. Shortages resulted. Anticipating shortages of basic consumer goods, people began to hoard leather, cloth, winter coats, even soap. Store shelves were empty, and hoarding had became so habitual that doctors in Tadzhikistan claimed that children were suffering from serious allergies due to the quantity of soap stuffed in their homes.

I guess there are a few related issues here: Did doctors claim that? Was there a surge in allergies? And was it plausibly due to soap stockpiling in the homes?

Answer 1

The June 1990 Atlantic article Inside the Collapsing Soviet Economy says:

Soviet TV and newspapers, liberated by glasnost, are filled with stories about these rising prices and their consequences. In late 1988 Soviet soapmakers began to shift from low-cost to higher-cost brands, as Gorbachev's new economic ground rules came into play. Consumers in response began scooping up the lower-priced soaps, fearing an impending shortage. As the shortage then naturally emerged, they turned to any soap they could find— and Moscow found itself faced with the howling resentment of citizens who couldn't find soap at any price on the shelves. Rationing was instituted, striking Soviet miners made more soap one of their demands, co-ops were discovered selling soap at six times the regular price, and doctors in Tadzhikistan reported patients whose tiny homes were so full of stockpiled soap that the inhabitants were suffering allergic reactions.

Report on the USSR (from the 4th quarter of 1989, alternative source) says:

Doctors in Tadzhikistan have reported increased incidence of allergies and irritation of the upper respiratory tract , and their determination of the cause : “ Having converted portions of their apartments into mylo and detergent warehouses, many of our people are breathing 'enriched' air"[reference 21]