There’s Something Fishy With Fragrances
So, I have what feels like a confession to make: I’m one of those people who gets headaches after being exposed to fabric softener-laced clothes dryer exhaust. And my throat closes up when I have to sit near someone on the Metro wearing way too much perfume/cologne/etc… (Luckily, I’m usually riding my bike where I don’t have to worry about fragrances as much as car exhaust and getting flattened.) So what’s the deal—am I chemically sensitive? Is that a diagnosable condition? Are all of us affected in some way by fragrances and I’m just more aware of the trigger? What about the long-term health effects of being exposed to volatile organic compounds found in some fragrances? There are a lot of questions surrounding multiple chemical sensitivity and fragrances, of which these are just a few.
Fragrances are ubiquitous in our modern society. It isn’t too hard to avoid them in my own home (as long as I don’t rent the unit right by the dryer vents, which I sadly have some experience with), by choosing fragrance-free or mildly- and naturally-scented cleaning and beauty products. Kids don’t have much choice, and add to that the countless public spaces where even I can’t avoid overpowering smells. That adds up to the potential for a lot of exposure to volatile organic compounds and other chemicals in fragrances over the stages of childhood (and adulthood).
It’s also very difficult to figure out what is in fragrances, since there is no disclosure required by the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory agencies for the fragrances in a wide range of consumer products. One recent study found 10 volatile organic compounds designated toxic and hazardous by the EPA in six common air fresheners and laundry products. Here at EPA, the team at Design for the Environment is promoting less harmful alternatives for fragrance chemicals in cleaners and the Indoor Air Quality team is monitoring the scientific research on the topic. I hope that the EPA’s new approach to chemicals management will shed some scientific light on fragrances and their health effects, and protect people from potential harm.
About the author: Matthew H. Davis, M.P.H., is a Health Scientist in EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, working there on science and regulatory policy as a Presidential Management Fellow since October 2009. Previously, he worked in the environmental advocacy arena, founding a non-profit organization in Maine and overseeing the work of non-profits in four other states.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Finally, someone else like me! All I sense from scented personal, laundry or household products falls into three categories: Herbacide, pesticide or solvent. I makes me physically ill.
The more you fight something, the more anxious you become —the more you’re involved in a bad pattern, the more difficult it is to escape
Every woman I work with has started to wear an enormous (to me) amount of perfume, and every day I get a mild to bad headache. I want to say, Women: I should only be smelling your chemicals if I’m kissing your neck! Not from 3 desks away!
To me, perfume smells like chemicals with the added bonus of weird fake fragrance.
I run a fan at my desk all year round, even if it’s freezing, to try to circulate the smells away from me.
Consumers have the right to know what they are taking from the manufacturers of the products they’re buying. It’s not that the components/ingredients are not disclosed, they’re just something that you have to find out yourself through research. Like blood pressure machines, all we know is that they’re for blood pressure. But we don’t know how they are made so as to do what it is made to do.
I use essential oils and look for it in the personal products I buy when I want something to smell nice. If there are petroleum-based fragrances in a product, they are guaranteed to give me a headache and a eczema-like rash (or worse, hives). I found that my clothes are soft enough without dryer sheets or softener so I don’t buy them. My opinion is that if we don’t buy the products then they won’t make them! Nice article. Thank you for this info.
Good grief? Why wouldn’t you fire a cleaning lady who does not provide the service you want? I hope by now you have done so.
Last night, long after the neighbor stopped drying clothes, there was a heavy rain. Did it smell fresh in the yard? No. All one could smell was the scent from the dryer sheets. It was on the plants.
The neighbor knows that this is s problem. I’m going to have to ask for a town ordinance that either dryer sheets are banned, or there must be some kind of filter added to the dryer vent.
We don’t use pesticides in the yard. What good does that do when plant life is covered with this stuff.
What a shame. I experience the same problem. Can’t believe that this type of pollution is being allowed.
Save the earth!
My wife has eczema, psoriasis and lichen sclerosus. We have long wondered if there could be an environmental cause like this.
M
Hmm, first attempt didn’t go through, let’s try again.
My wife has eczema, psoriasis and lichen sclerosus. We have long wondered if there could be an environmental cause like this.
M