Photo Courtesy of Charles Rondeau http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=19394&picture=threatening-sky

In a research paper presented at an American Chemical Society meeting in 2010, a fragrance designer candidly admits that “anywhere from 800 to 1500 chemicals … can be found in a product, depending on its complexity” (http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2010/august/secrets-of-scents-designing-the-smells-that-sell-household-products.html).

The multi-billion dollar chemical industry would have us believe that exposure to scent chemicals – some that should scare the pants right off us – is safe. We’re apparently okay because it’s only a small amount of 800-1500 chemicals in just the one product, right? But what about all the other scented products around us? Plus, unlike other indulgences, scent exposure is continuous, especially if it’s on your body, in your home and work environment.

Isn’t this rather like sprinkling a little arsenic on your cereal every day and expecting to be safe? No one can predict with certainty how our bodies will respond, especially in the long term. The chemical industry’s priority is to create the “smell that sells” by manipulating emotions and memory. Profits take precedence over health.

Should we trust an industry that commonly includes toluene in its formulations even though toluene can cause autism and asthma? (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422%2813%2970278-3/fulltext; http://www.bc.lung.ca/mediaroom/scents.html )

Fragrances have become such a ubiquitous part of our culture that people often wear them even when they don’t intend to, particularly if they haven’t checked the label of every hair, skin and laundry product for the term “fragrance,” “perfume,” “parfum” or “aroma.”

Carefully selecting unscented products may help reduce the health risks we all face from the onslaught of chemical scents. The Guide to Less Toxic Products (http://lesstoxicguide.ca/), Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/) and the Environmental Working Groups’ Guide to Healthy Cleaning (http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners) are helpful resources.

Photo Courtesy of Junior Libby http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=27191&picture=the-mask

To discover 1498 scientific research papers on the toxicity of fragrance, click on the link, “Research: Studies on the toxicity of fragrance cited in Pub Med,” located near the bottom of the webpage found at http://safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=222.

Yet as I write to you, shoppers are buying their loved ones scented products laced with respiratory irritants, sensitizers, registered pesticides, carcinogens and nerve toxins. Others are applying them to their skin and hair, clothing and homes. And doctors aren’t warning pregnant women to keep scented products out of their homes even though they are a primary source of exposure to phthalates or endocrine disruptors (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404651/).

How can there be so much evidence about the toxicity of fragrance yet such widespread use of scented products? Obviously, there is a gap between what scientists know and what the public knows. This gap is deliberately maintained by the fragrance industry.

If you think it’s impossible to keep people in the dark about adverse or even dire health consequences from commonly used products, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, consider this: In the 1940s and 50s, cigarette smoking was unequivocally proven to be the cause of the global epidemic of lung cancer yet 50 % of American doctors were still smoking by 1960 and only 1/3 believed that smoking causes lung cancer (http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87.full).

The tobacco industry used propaganda to cast doubt on the validity of the research. Note that they did not actually have to prove anything. All they had to do was cast doubt. Doubt breeds inaction. We see the same phenomenon with big industry casting doubt about the greenhouse effect so they can carry on with business as usual.

The fragrance industry uses similar strategies as the tobacco industry, including propaganda. They label incriminating research papers, “Bad Science.” They liken today’s intense, persistent chemical concoctions with the plant-based fragrances of days gone by. They fail to disclose. They use misleading labels. They target young people. They attack the experts. They discredit those who have scent reactions as neurotics in need of psychiatric help. They claim they are a highly regulated industry yet Health Canada relies on them to voluntarily regulate themselves.

They form powerful lobbies to protect their interests. They create associations composed of fragrance industry members to “educate” the public yet their true purpose is to spread propaganda. They encourage wearers to keep their fragrance within an arm’s length but their products are designed to disperse widely, settling and sticking to every available surface, including the food we eat. They’ve even created food-approved fragrance chemicals (aroma chemicals) which are used in packaged foods.

We are all at the mercy of the runaway fragrance industry in ways that few of us have considered. Unfortunately, unlike cigarette smoke, the toxic VOC’s in scented products waft around us invisibly, day and night, indoors and even outdoors from dryer vent emissions. And, unlike the tobacco industry which created one type of product, cigarettes, the fragrance industry’s chemicals permeate a profuse array of products.

So, what can we do about it? We can carefully select the products we bring into our homes using websites like the non-profit Guide to Less Toxic Products (http://lesstoxicguide.ca/), Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/) and the Environmental Working Groups’ Guide to Healthy Cleaning (http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners). We can minimize how many types of body products we use. We can try to avoid using too many packaged foods. We can ask for scent-free policies and we can speak up when people ignore them.

Finally, we can hope it won’t take too long for knowledge about the health risks of fragrance to flow from researchers to the public and for the government to start reigning in the industry.

Photo Courtesy of Shayna Michaels
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1283

Does the idea of pesticides, probable human carcinogens and hazardous air pollutants constantly vaporizing and dispersing in a cloud around you or your home seem appealing? I think not. Yet, many people are unintentionally emitting these and other toxic compounds from scented products on their hair, skin and clothing. Emissions from air “fresheners” and surfaces cleaned with scented products also contribute to this soup of unhealthy chemicals in the air.

In 2010, Dr. Anne Steinemann, along with her team of scientists from the US Environmental Protection Agency, University of Washington and Battelle Memorial Institute, investigated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by 25 fragranced consumer products (personal care, laundry, cleaning supplies and air fresheners). Over half the products tested were top sellers, all in common usage and in the top 5 for annual sales (Environmental Impact Assessment Review: Fragranced consumer products: Chemicals emitted, ingredients unlisted www.drsteinemann.com/Articles/Steinemann%20et%20al.%202010.pdf).

They identified 24 VOCs classified as toxic or hazardous compounds, some of which formed the most dominant emissions. 13 kinds of registered pesticides were noted with many products emitting more than one type of pesticide (Table 2, FIFRA: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act – Registered Pesticide).

They also identified 4 probable human carcinogens with no safe exposure level. Examples of other toxic or hazardous VOCs they found include 8 hazardous air pollutants, 20 air contaminants and 2 priority pollutants under the Clean Water Act.

I doubt that anyone wants to breathe clouds of pesticides, probable human carcinogens or hazardous constituents in our public buildings, homes and streets (from dryer vents). If you want to use safe products though, be cautious. The supposed “greening” of mainstream products is deceptive. The labels of many of the products tested in this study used words like “organic,” “non-toxic,” “essential oils” or “natural” yet there was no statistically-significant difference found between these and the other products.

The non-profit Guide to Less Toxic Products http://lesstoxicguide.ca/, Skin Deep Cosmetics Database http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ and the Environmental Working Groups’ Guide to Healthy Cleaning (http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners) are excellent resources for identifying safer product lines.

Additional studies, article summaries and press releases may be viewed at http://drsteinemann.com/publications.html

Photo Courtesy of Karen Arnold http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=42362&picture=spring-garden-window-frame-view

In the Spring we want to throw our windows wide and let the freshness in. We may be unpleasantly surprised though by chemical odors wafting into our homes from clothes dryer emissions. Admittedly, there are those among us who enjoy chemical fragrances but many don’t. Aside from aesthetic considerations, neighbourhood dryer emissions are far from harmless.

According to Dr. Anne Steinemann’s newest study, Volatile Emissions from Common Consumer Products (http://www.drsteinemann.com/publications.html), the major difference between scented and non-scented versions of the same products is the presence of an abundance of terpenes in the scented products.

Terpenes react with ozone to create dangerous secondary pollutants which can cause cancer. They can also irritate eyes, skin, sinuses and lungs, induce or aggravate heart and lung disease, raise blood pressure, cause inflammation, etc. Dr. Steinemann notes that cancer-causing emissions from “green” scented products are not much different from those emitted by regular scented products (p. 2).

Switching to unscented laundry products will not only help reduce air pollution in your neighbourhood, it is also the considerate thing to do for your neighbours. If you wish to learn which laundry products are safest, check out the Guide to Less Toxic Products (http://lesstoxicguide.ca/), Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/) and the Environmental Working Groups’ Guide to Healthy Cleaning (http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners).