5 Reasons to Avoid Air Fresheners

Air freshener seems to be everywhere in our society lately – hotels, public bathrooms, taxi cabs, restaurants – one Women’s Voices for the Earth member even reported finding time-release air fresheners all over the natal intensive care unit at the hospital she works at.
And of course, nowhere is air freshener more prevalent than in our own homes. 
The home air freshening sector is a multi-billion dollar industry, which isn’t hard to believe given the staggeringly high number of air freshening devices available to consumers these days. From aerosols, sprays, and candles, to plug-ins, oils, time releasers, each with dozens of different scents to choose from, the options are overwhelming.

Have you ever wondered what’s in those myriad air fresheners that make your home smell like a tropical vacation or a woodsy cabin surrounded by wildflowers? Read on to find out!

1. Secret Ingredients
Maybe now that you’re wondering what’s in air fresheners, you’ll try picking up your favorite product and checking the label for the ingredients.

You won’t find any.

That’s because most companies keep fragrance ingredients a secret, dubbing them “confidential business information.” This scent secrecy is practiced across industries – cleaning products, personal care products, cosmetics, etc. – but this problem becomes even more egregious when it comes to air fresheners, in which fragrance can make up 70-80% of the overall composition of the product. That means we have no information on the vast majority of chemicals we’re spraying in our homes.

I bet you’re thinking, “Wait, seriously? Isn’t there some law that requires companies to tell us what’s in their products?” The answer is no. In addition to the fragrance secrecy that’s practiced across industries, there’s no law that requires cleaning product companies (which make air fresheners) to list any of the ingredients in their products – which means that companies can legally keep toxic chemicals a secret from you. We know, we think it’s ridiculous too – and we’re working on fixing that!

2. Toxic Chemicals in Fragrance

As consumers, we have good reason to want to know what’s in fragrance. In 2010, for the first time, the International Fragrance Association released a master list of over 3,100 chemicals that are used by most manufacturers. Chemicals on that list include carcinogens like p-dichlorobenzene and styrene oxide, endocrine disruptors like galaxolide and tonalide, reproductive toxicants like phthalates, problematic disinfectants like triclosan and ammonium quaternary compounds, and numerous allergens.
A fragrance can be made up of more than 100 chemicals – and could include any of those harmful chemicals.
WVE was curious which of these chemicals might be hiding out in some brand-name air fresheners. In 2011, we independently tested some popular air freshening products. Test results revealed synthetic musks, phthalates, and high levels of allergens.
Here’s the thing: The lab was only specifically testing for musks, phthalates, and allergens because we asked them to. Unfortunately, we don’t have the money to walk into a lab and say, “Tell us everything that’s in this fragrance.”  (Sure, companies deconstruct other companies’ scents all the time, but we don’t have that kind of budget.) In essence, that means that any of the thousands of ingredients we know are commonly used in fragrance could also make up scents in those products.

3. Fragrance Chemicals Impact Women’s & Children’s Health
When it comes to chemicals linked to allergies, cancer, and reproductive harm, we have a right to know what’s in the fragrances we’re spraying in our homes. Especially because studies are increasingly showing that chemicals in fragrance are harming our health, particularly the health of women and children.

• One study of pregnant women showed a link between the use of air fresheners and aerosol sprays and an increase in headaches and depression in the mothers, as well as ear infections and diarrhea in their babies.
• Certain hormone disrupting chemicals found in fragrance can have significant lifelong effects on reproductive health and development, like galaxolide and tonalide (detected in our blood, breast milk, and even newborns) and phthalates (linked to reproductive harm in baby boys).
• Women are 2-3 times more likely than men to suffer from fragrance allergies. Women also become sensitized earlier than men, at age 20-29 versus age 50-59 in men.
• Girls have higher sensitization rates to fragrance allergens than boys, and studies show increasing diagnoses of allergic contact dermatitis and excema in children.
• Research indicates that the more we used fragranced products, the higher the levels of fragrance chemicals in our bodies.


4. Unnecessary Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
Any step we can take to reduce our exposure to unknown toxic chemicals is a good step—and air fresheners represent an unnecessary exposure to toxic chemicals. For example, we use air freshener because something in the room smells bad – if we can identify the smell and eliminate or prevent it, we don’t even need air freshener. Check out WVE’s tips for reducing odors around the home.
There are also lots of non-toxic ways to add a particular scent to your home without using synthetic chemicals. Setting out a bouquet of fresh or dried flowers can add a floral scent, and simmering herbs or spices on the stove can allow you to tailor the scent you want. You can even use seasonal alternatives like pine cones, pine needles, or cinnamon.

5. You Can Make Fragrance Safer!
Okay, I realize that this isn’t a reason to avoid air fresheners – this one’s directed to those of us that want to enjoy fragrance without worrying about our health.
WVE is working to convince companies to disclose the ingredients in their fragrances, because we believe that we have a right to know what’s in the products we’re bringing into our homes, spraying in the air that we breathe, landing on the surfaces that we touch, and settling into the dust at our feet.
Women make almost 85% of consumer decisions, which is a huge amount of economic power to make change. Because we’re the ones keeping companies in business, they have a responsibility to listen to our concerns and act on them.
Join our Secrets Scents campaign to help us expose fragrance secrets, once and for all!

Resources on women’s health and fragrance chemicals:

How Did That Pine Forest Get in My Cleaner?
Secret Scents: How Hidden Fragrance Allergens Harm Public Health
What’s That Smell: Chemicals of Concern Commonly Found in Fragranced Cleaning Products
Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products?
Not So Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance