Even though leading brands of many favorite laundry and household products tout claims of smelling like a pine forest, fresh ocean breezes, and springtime mornings doesn’t mean there’s any trace whatsoever, in the container, of the actual scent being described.  How would you bottle the smells of a springtime morning anyway?  Those satisfying aromas actually come from a toxic stew of artificial chemicals that are not listed on the products’ ingredients labels.

After learning that many people were becoming ill after breathing the air fresheners wafting through public restrooms and many laundry products, even when laundry vents channeled laundry aromas outdoors, Anne Steinmann, a University of Washington professor of public affairs and civil and environmental engineering, investigated further.  She wanted to know what it was in the products that made so many people sick.

Steinmann chose six different products commonly used in most households in America.  She chose the leading brands of each product.  She tested the chemical composition of each product, with particular emphasis paid to volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  VOC is the term used to collectively describe the molecules in the air that evaporate from the surface of a specified product.

The six common household products, that Steinmann declined to identify by name, included three widely available air fresheners and three laundry products.  One air freshener was sold as a deodorizing disk, another a liquid spray, and the third was an oil that becomes activated when plugged into an electrical outlet.  The laundry products were a detergent, a liquid fabric softener, and a dryer sheet.  All products tested were purchased at a grocery store.

The report of this sampling of products was published online on July 23 in the online edition of the journal, Environmental Impact Assessment Review.  She chose to keep the brand names unpublished at this time because she has recently submitted for publication the report of a more comprehensive study, involving 25 products which she does identify by brand name.

In the current study of the six products, Steinmann found almost 100 different VOCs emitted by the products under scrutiny.  None of the products listed any of the toxic ingredients on their labels.  Of the six products, five of them emitted at least one carcinogenic substance classified as a “hazardous air pollutant” by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and for which there is no known safe level of exposure.

Of all the VOCs revealed in Steinmann’s analysis, 58 of them tested above the 300 micrograms per cubic meter mark, a level considered hazardous or toxic for them all, according to EPA standards.  The plug-in air freshener alone emitted more than 20 VOCs.  The product’s label listed these toxic VOCs as simply a “mixture of perfume oils.”

There are no regulations in the United States that require ingredients labels to list all substances used in the manufacture of personal care and grooming products, laundry products, and air fresheners.  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires an ingredients list for cosmetics but no federal agency requires a list of the chemicals required to produce the fragrances the cosmetics or other products emit.

Recently enacted legislative regulations in the European union require manufacturers to list 26 toxic chemicals that are used to produce fragrance in similar products.  If the concentration of these chemicals rises above a certain level, they must be listed on labels for all cosmetic and detergent products.

Source: University of Washington