The nose knows, however in the case of sweet, pleasant and memory-filled fragrances, the nose has been duped. At least mine has been as I wander through the drugstore sniffing all the various deodorants I’ve used throughout the years since 7th grade. Sort of like the way chlorine wafting through the air makes me smile and think of youthful summers by the pool.
As youth steps aside for truth, I’ve realized just how rampant fragrance is in our homes. Residing in cleaning and bath products, candles and cosmetics, it awaits for us at every turn until we ultimately get so used to our home scents that our noses become desensitized. And it’s allowed to run rampant because it’s protected under fair trade secret laws, just in case anyone wants to attempt to duplicate the potentially 4,000 ingredients that can make up one innocent looking word on the back of one of our cleaning or beauty bottles: fragrance. Guilty or not, these chemicals that fall under the heading of “fragrance” are derived from petroleum and tar and few have been tested for safety.
In fact, in Jeffrey Hollender’s Naturally Clean, he notes that VOCs are the fragrant part of fragrance and that pthalates are used to prolong those scents. Thus, it’s not just the chemicals that pose threats, it’s the thousands of different combinations of these volatile compounds and their preservatives that can cause trouble as well.
In cleaning products we’ve become quite savvy about at least some of the dangers and we may even take precautions when doing a house shakedown by wearing rubber gloves and a mask (neither of which offers the environment any protection). But how many coiffed and scented men and women walk down the street in a ceramic body suite to protect themselves from their self inflicted beauty products? These toxins are not good for anyone, but by using them in cosmetics and personal care products, we essentially give them carte-blanche entrance through absorption and inhalation.
In fact, one of my favorite perfumes -- Calvin Klein’s Eternity -- was in the spotlight as a consumer requested the FDA to declare it misbranded and to require a warning explaining that the safety of the product had not been determined. This request is in accord with the requirements set up for cosmetics, the heading under which fragrance falls. Some noted effects include skin irritation, headaches and nausea, irritability, depression and respiratory effects. However, some of these toxins can accumulate in the body over time, increasing risk for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer.
People have been affected by fragrance for years, however it seems that lately a larger percentage of the population is reacting, or perhaps rejecting. And thus “fragrance free” lines started cropping up. However, often similar chemicals are used to cover up the most pungent chemicals that make up a product and that require the use of fragrance to cover the chemical scents. Make sense? In essence, more chemicals are required to make something “fragrance free.” Not the case every time, but ironic regardless.
Alternatives to synthetics do exist. However, the price of a natural scent can leave a synthetic scent in the dust. Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation, the natural cleaning products company, again notes in Naturally Clean that “…a natural scenting agent can cost as much as four thousand times its synthetic version.” No wonder. Like packaged foods, it always boils down to money in one way or another.
Does anyone want my bottle of Chanel’s Chance I got for Christmas?
For a more in depth look at the specific chemicals involved in fragrance and cosmetics, check out the following:
